ROME (Reuters) - More than 2,000 migrants trying to reach Europe were plucked from the Mediterranean on Friday in a series of dramatic rescues and one person was found dead, officials and witnesses said.

A rescue swimmer holds onto migrants frantically trying to stay afloat after falling off their rubber dinghy during a rescue operation by the Malta-based NGO Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) ship in the central Mediterranean in international waters some 15 nautical miles off the coast of Zawiya in Libya, April 14, 2017. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi

An Italian coast guard spokesman said 19 rescue operations by the coast guard or ships operated by non-governmental organizations had saved a total of 2,074 migrants on 16 rubber dinghies and three small wooden boats.

The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said in a tweet that one teenager was found dead in a rubber boat whose passengers were rescued by its ship Aquarius.

“The sea continues to be a graveyard,” MSF said in a Tweet.

The coast guard spokesman confirmed that one person had died but gave no details.

MSF said two of their ships, Aquarius and Prudence, had rescued about 1,000 people in nine boats.

Desperate refugees struggled to stay afloat after they slid off their rubber boat during a rescue operation by the Phoenix, a ship of the rescue group Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS).

Video footage showed rescuers jumping into the water off the coast of Libya to help them.

“In 19 years of covering the migration story, I have never experienced anything like today,” said Reuters photographer Darrin Zammit Lupi, who was aboard the Phoenix.

In one operation, the Phoenix rescued 134 people, all from sub-Saharan counties, he said.

Those rescued by the MOAS and MSF ships were transferred to Italian coast guard ships, which had rescued other migrants, to be taken to Italian ports.

According to the International Organisation for Migration, nearly 32,000 migrants have arrived in Europe by sea so far this year. More than 650 have died or are missing.</s>At least 97 African migrants are believed drowned after their boat sank in the Mediterranean Sea today.

The Libyan coast guard said 23 people were rescued, but most are still missing.

Spokesman Ayoub Gassim said 23 migrants were rescued around 6 miles off the Libyan coast after authorities received a distress call.

Fifteen women and five children are among those still missing.

He said the boat, which was packed with African nationals seeking a better life in Europe, ‘completely collapsed.’

Chaotic Libya has become a major avenue of migration, with thousands braving the dangerous sea crossing to Europe.

More than 4,500 migrants perished on the crossing in 2016 alone.

Smugglers use often rickety vessels to ferry thousands of migrants from the north African country to Europe each month. Mass drownings are common when the overloaded boats capsize or sink.

The German government on Thursday said it would support a ban on the export of boats from the European Union to Libya as part of measures to stem the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean.</s>With the closing of land routes in the Balkans and a recent deal under which Greece sends migrants back to Turkey, Italian officials have said they expect more people to try to make this longer and much more dangerous crossing from Libya.

In one of four incidents, an Italian merchant ship rescued 26 people off the coast of Libya in rough seas and others were feared missing, Italy's Coast Guard said on Saturday.

IOM, citing survivor testimony, said 84 people appeared to be missing from that wreck, while at least 29 drowned in two other attempted crossings in rubber dinghies of the Channel of Sicily. It was still investigating a fourth incident.

"Just since Friday we know of 4 shipwrecks and 113 people killed, just off Libya," IOM spokesman Joel Millman said.

"It is becoming the preferred route. So therefore we are very mindful of what could be coming in the next few months," Millman told a news briefing.

Migrants from West Africa, especially Nigerians, and the Horn of Africa dominate the Libya-Italy route, which Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis are not taking for now, Millman added.

In all, 1,357 migrants and refugees perished at sea during the first four months of the year, mostly along the Central Mediterranean route, against 1,733 during the period in 2015, the agency said.

Since January, 28,593 migrants and refugees have arrived by sea in Italy, while 154,862 have landed in Greece, the IOM said.</s>ROME: More than 2,000 migrants trying to reach Europe were plucked from the Mediterranean on Friday in a series of dramatic rescues and one person was found dead, officials and witnesses said.

An Italian coast guard spokesman said 19 rescue operations by the coast guard or ships operated by non-governmental organisations had saved a total of 2,074 migrants on 16 rubber dinghies and three small wooden boats.

The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said in a tweet that one teenager was found dead in a rubber boat whose passengers were rescued by its ship Aquarius.

"The sea continues to be a graveyard," MSF said in a Tweet.

The coast guard spokesman confirmed that one person had died but gave no details.

MSF said two of their ships, Aquarius and Prudence, had rescued about 1,000 people in nine boats.

Desperate refugees struggled to stay afloat after they slid off their rubber boat during a rescue operation by the Phoenix, a ship of the rescue group Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS).

Video footage showed rescuers jumping into the water off the coast of Libya to help them.

"In 19 years of covering the migration story, I have never experienced anything like today," said Reuters photographer Darrin Zammit Lupi, who was aboard the Phoenix.

In one operation, the Phoenix rescued 134 people, all from sub-Saharan counties, he said.

Those rescued by the MOAS and MSF ships were transferred to Italian coast guard ships, which had rescued other migrants, to be taken to Italian ports.

According to the International Organisation for Migration, nearly 32,000 migrants have arrived in Europe by sea so far this year. More than 650 have died or are missing.</s>More than 2,000 migrants trying to reach Europe were plucked from the Mediterranean on Friday in a series of dramatic rescues and one person was found dead, officials and witnesses said.

An Italian coast guard spokesman said 19 rescue operations by the coast guard or ships operated by non-governmental organizations had saved a total of 2,074 migrants on 16 rubber dinghies and three small wooden boats.

The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said in a tweet that one teenager was found dead in a rubber boat whose passengers were rescued by its ship Aquarius.

"The sea continues to be a graveyard," MSF said in a Tweet.

The coast guard spokesman confirmed that one person had died but gave no details.

MSF said two of their ships, Aquarius and Prudence, had rescued about 1,000 people in nine boats.

Desperate refugees struggled to stay afloat after they slid off their rubber boat during a rescue operation by the Phoenix, a ship of the rescue group Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS).

Video footage showed rescuers jumping into the water off the coast of Libya to help them.

"In 19 years of covering the migration story, I have never experienced anything like today," said Reuters photographer Darrin Zammit Lupi, who was aboard the Phoenix.

In one operation, the Phoenix rescued 134 people, all from sub-Saharan counties, he said.

Those rescued by the MOAS and MSF ships were transferred to Italian coast guard ships, which had rescued other migrants, to be taken to Italian ports.

According to the International Organization for Migration, nearly 32,000 migrants have arrived in Europe by sea so far this year. More than 650 have died or are missing.</s>More than 2,000 migrants trying to reach Europe were plucked from the Mediterranean on Friday in a series of dramatic rescues and one person was found dead, officials and witnesses said.

An Italian coast guard spokesman said 19 rescue operations by the coast guard or ships operated by non-governmental organizations had saved a total of 2,074 migrants on 16 rubber dinghies and three small wooden boats.

The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said in a tweet that one teenager was found dead in a rubber boat whose passengers were rescued by its ship Aquarius.

“The sea continues to be a graveyard,” MSF said in a Tweet.

The coast guard spokesman confirmed that one person had died but gave no details.

MSF said two of their ships, Aquarius and Prudence, had rescued about 1,000 people in nine boats.

Desperate refugees struggled to stay afloat after they slid off their rubber boat during a rescue operation by the Phoenix, a ship of the rescue group Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS).

Video footage showed rescuers jumping into the water off the coast of Libya to help them.

“In 19 years of covering the migration story, I have never experienced anything like today,” said Reuters photographer Darrin Zammit Lupi, who was aboard the Phoenix.

In one operation, the Phoenix rescued 134 people, all from sub-Saharan counties, he said.

Those rescued by the MOAS and MSF ships were transferred to Italian coast guard ships, which had rescued other migrants, to be taken to Italian ports.

According to the International Organisation for Migration, nearly 32,000 migrants have arrived in Europe by sea so far this year. More than 650 have died or are missing.</s>Rescue vessels in the Mediterranean worked flat out Friday to rescue over 2,000 people from flimsy dinghies as exhausted saviors accused the EU of turning a blind eye to the crisis.

The Italian coast guard and five privately-run rescue boats plucked migrants from 16 overcrowded dinghies and three wooden vessels.

After non-stop back-to-back rescues, a total of 2,074 people were brought to safety, the coastguard said, a day after a shipwreck left at least 97 migrants feared drowned off Libya.

The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) boats Prudence and Aquarius rescued some 1,145 people from nine different dinghies in exhausting operations it said proved their presence off the North African coast was needed.

The rest were picked up by the coast guard, the Phoenix—run by the Maltese organisation Moas—the German NGO Sea Eye and the German Jugend’s Iuventa.

Rescuers said a teenager had been found dead in one of the rubber boats on Friday during the “very difficult” rescues.

EU’s border control agency Frontex has accused donor-funded vessels of doing more harm than good by sailing off Libya and acting “like taxis”, and Italian prosecutors have suggested they may have links with traffickers—a charge they have fiercely denied.

“How many people would have crossed if we weren’t there today, Frontex? Probably the same. How many would have died? Probably, many more,” MSF said on Twitter.

“Where are Frontex boats in a day like this?” it asked. “EU states keep their blind eyes turned” and in 2017 “the sea continues to be a graveyard”.

SOS Mediterranee, which operates the Aquarius jointly with MSF, posted a video showing women singing with happiness after their rescue.

Six years since the revolution that toppled dictator Moammar Kadhafi, Libya has become a key departure point for migrants risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

Hailing mainly from sub-Saharan countries, most of the migrants board boats operated by people traffickers in western Libya, and make for the Italian island of Lampedusa 300 kilometers away.

Since the beginning of this year, at least 590 migrants have died or gone missing along the Libyan coast, the International Organization for Migration said in late March.

More than 24,000 migrants arrived in Italy from Libya during the first three months of the year, up from 18,000 during the same period last year, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.</s>At least 97 Libyan migrants are feared dead after their boat sank Thursday in the Mediterranean Sea, en route to Europe, Libyan authorities said.

A spokesman for the Libyan Coast Guard said authorities rescued 23 migrants a few kilometers off the Libyan coast after receiving a distress call from their sinking boat.

By the time the Coast Guard arrived, spokesman Ayoub Gassim said the boat, which was packed with African migrants, "completely collapsed."

He said the survivors were all men who were found hanging onto a flotation device. The others were "probably dead," he said.

Libya serves as a popular starting point for migrants, mostly from countries in sub-Saharan Africa, to try to reach Europe. Smugglers use dilapidated boats to take thousands of migrants on the long, dangerous journey across the Mediterranean.

Mass drownings like the one feared to have happened Thursday are becoming more common as traffickers pack as many migrants as possible onto rickety boats.

The International Organization for Migration reports that as of April 9, some 664 migrants have died on the Mediterranean, with 90 percent on the Libya-to-Italy route.</s>More than 2,000 migrants rescued in dramatic day in Mediterranean

More than 2,000 migrants trying to reach Europe were plucked from the Mediterranean on Friday in a series of dramatic rescues and one person was found dead, Reuters reported.

An Italian coast guard spokesman said 19 rescue operations by the coast guard or ships operated by non-governmental organizations had saved a total of 2,074 migrants on 16 rubber dinghies and three small wooden boats.

The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said in a tweet that one teenager was found dead in a rubber boat whose passengers were rescued by its ship Aquarius.

"The sea continues to be a graveyard," MSF said in a Tweet.

The coast guard spokesman confirmed that one person had died but gave no details.

MSF said two of their ships, Aquarius and Prudence, had rescued about 1,000 people in nine boats.

Desperate refugees struggled to stay afloat after they slid off their rubber boat during a rescue operation by the Phoenix, a ship of the rescue group Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS).

Video footage showed rescuers jumping into the water off the coast of Libya to help them.

"In 19 years of covering the migration story, I have never experienced anything like today," said Reuters photographer Darrin Zammit Lupi, who was aboard the Phoenix.

In one operation, the Phoenix rescued 134 people, all from sub-Saharan counties, he said.

Those rescued by the MOAS and MSF ships were transferred to Italian coast guard ships, which had rescued other migrants, to be taken to Italian ports.

According to the International Organisation for Migration, nearly 32,000 migrants have arrived in Europe by sea so far this year. More than 650 have died or are missing.</s>More than 2,000 migrants trying to reach Europe were plucked from the Mediterranean on Friday in a series of dramatic rescues and one person was found dead, officials and witnesses said.

An Italian coast guard spokesman said 19 rescue operations by the coast guard or ships operated by non-governmental organisations had saved a total of 2,074 migrants on 16 rubber dinghies and three small wooden boats.

The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said in a tweet that one teenager was found dead in a rubber boat whose passengers were rescued by its ship Aquarius.

"The sea continues to be a graveyard," MSF said in a Tweet.

The coast guard spokesman confirmed that one person had died but gave no details.

MSF said two of their ships, Aquarius and Prudence, had rescued about 1,000 people in nine boats.

Desperate refugees struggled to stay afloat after they slid off their rubber boat during a rescue operation by the Phoenix, a ship of the rescue group Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS).

Video footage showed rescuers jumping into the water off the coast of Libya to help them.

"In 19 years of covering the migration story, I have never experienced anything like today," said Reuters photographer Darrin Zammit Lupi, who was aboard the Phoenix.

In one operation, the Phoenix rescued 134 people, all from sub-Saharan counties, he said.

Those rescued by the MOAS and MSF ships were transferred to Italian coast guard ships, which had rescued other migrants, to be taken to Italian ports.

According to the International Organisation for Migration, nearly 32,000 migrants have arrived in Europe by sea so far this year. More than 650 have died or are missing.
More than 2,000 migrants are rescued from the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya.