ROME — Italian Coast Guard and commercial vessels came to the rescue of at least 16 boats of migrants Sunday, saving hundreds of them and recovering 10 bodies off Libya's coast, as smugglers took advantage of calm seas to send packed vessels across the Mediterranean.
The Italian Coast Guard said the bodies were found in three separate rescue operations off Libya's coast. The Coast Guard was being aided by a tug and a merchant ship in at least some of the rescue efforts.
Sunday's drama at sea came a day after 3,690 migrants were saved from smugglers' boats. Most of those migrants were still being taken to southern Italian ports even as the fresh rescues were taking place.
Italy and humanitarian officials have been warning for weeks that the smugglers' boats would continue to head toward Italian shores unabated, and that spells of mild weather and calm seas could see spikes in the arrivals.
Some of the migrants rescued earlier in the weekend were brought to tiny Lampedusa island, while others were headed to ports in Sicily or in Calabria, in the south of the Italian mainland, on Monday. Temporary shelters for those rescued were running out of room for more even before this weekend's new arrivals, local authorities had warned.
In weather good or bad, smugglers often use aging vessels that sometimes begin leaking shortly after leaving Libya. The boats are crammed with too many people as traffickers try to maximize earnings off the migrants, who pay hundreds of dollars for the passage between the Mediterranean's southern shore and Italy.
It's not uncommon for thousands of migrants to be rescued over a day or two.
The relentless flood of migrants is continuing this year after 170,000 were rescued at sea by Italy in 2014 — a 277-percent increase over the numbers in 2013. Italy has pressed the European Union to do more to help it save the migrants, especially since many of those plucked to safety are asylum seekers hoping to reach relatives in northern Europe.