Around 1,300 boat migrants were saved in the Mediterranean on Thursday in 12 rescue operations as the crossings from Libya continue, Italian coastguard said.
The migrants were aboard six inflatable dinghies and six small wooden boats, and were plucked from the sea by an Italian coastguard vessel, Italian and British navy vessels and a Norwegian ship from the European Union's border and coastguard agency Frontex.
A EU summit on stemming the flow of migrant boats from North Africa to Europe is taking place in Malta on Friday, chaired by the bloc's chief Donald Tusk.
A total 5,483 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea this year through 29 January, according to the International Organisation for Migration.
Over three quarters of the migrants arrived in Italy via the central Mediterranean route from Libya, while the rest landed in Greece, according to IOM.
Some 253 migrants perished at sea in the first 29 days of January, IOM estimated.
