Tents are erected on the railroad linking Greece and Macedonia, at the migrants camp in Idomeni, Greece. Photo / AP
Italian vessels have helped rescue more than 2600 migrants from boats trying to reach Europe from North Africa in the last 24 hours, the coastguard says.
Some 2000 migrants were rescued off the Libyan coast from 14 rubber dinghies and one larger boat in salvage operations by the Italian Navy
and coastguard, the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres and an Irish navy vessel, the coastguard said.
Another 636 migrants were rescued from two boats in Maltese waters, in operations involving Maltese and Italian vessels, it said.
It gave no information about the nationalities of those saved.
More than 31,000 migrants have reached Italy by boat so far this year, slightly fewer than in the same period of 2015.
