Italy: 1,200 migrants rescued by coastguard as 70 bodies pulled from sea

Video footage captures the moment a coastguard official urges a person struggling in the sea to 'give me your hand'

More than 1,200 migrants have been rescued by Italian authorities and at least 70 bodies have been recovered from the sea after a number of boats undertook the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean.

Coastguard officials said in a statement that they were responding to 35 boats, which had left Tunisia last weekend - three of which encountered difficulties as they journeyed between North Africa to Europe.

At least 23 people are thought to be missing from the three vessels, while a Tunisian official confirmed the bodies of some 70 people have been recovered from the sea since last Friday.

Air and naval assets from the coastguard, Border Police, the European border protection agency Frontex and a humanitarian organisation were involved in the rescue operation, the statement added.

Some 20 more boats crowded with migrants were reported to Italy's coastguard on Monday.

Officials said that by Sunday a total of 640 migrants had reached Lampedusa island - off the coast of southern Italy - with hundreds more arriving on Monday.

ITV News has recently tracked the same journey, which many of the migrants took over the weekend, witnessing first-hand the dangers involved with the crossing.

Last week, Italian authorities used commercial ferries and military vessels to transfer migrants from Lampedusa to Sicily or the mainland - bringing the island's migrant centre below its approximately 400-person capacity.

But the past weekend's arrivals have left officials scrambling to find new arrangements to move migrants from the island.

Although Italy's far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has led a crackdown both on smugglers and on the charity boats, migrants have continued to risk the dangerous voyages in the hope of finding work or relatives in Europe.

More than 36,600 migrants have now arrived in Italy since the start of the year, according to figures from the country's Interior Ministry - more than four times the number for the same period in each of the two previous years.

Italy rejects most asylum bids because migrants are fleeing poverty, not war or persecution.

But, since barely a handful of countries have repatriation accords with Italy, the migrants who lose asylum bids often stay on for years in a legal limbo or try to make their way to northern European countries.

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