Excerpt:
Italy's coastguard has coordinated the rescue of another 1,800 migrants, lifting the total plucked from stricken boats since the start of 2016 to more than 30,000, the navy announced Friday.
The migrants were rescued from waters off Libya on Thursday in ten operations involving boats operated by the Italian navy, coastguard and customs police, the EU's border agency Frontex and the Doctors without Borders NGO.
The latest arrivals take the total number of refugees or other migrants landed at Italian ports since January 1 to above 30,000, slightly above the total at this time last year.