10,000 migrants rescued from Mediterranean in just four days

Up to 70 migrants, including young children, rescued from a dinghy in the Mediterranean after a gas cylinder on their boat exploded, have arrived in Sicily for urgent medical care.

ITV News correspondent John Ray reports from Sicily. Some viewers might find images in this video distressing.

It is the duty of EU member states to help deal with the thousands of migrants pouring across the Mediterranean, the commissioner for migration said.

Dimitris Avramopoulos said that while the EU is developing the policies, the member states and their resources must implement them.

"Europe is accomplishing its duty, it's up to the member states to implement it," he said, referring to a new EU policy to be presented in May.

He urged member states to show solidarity with those bearing the brunt of the arrivals.

His comments come as some 10,000 migrants have been rescued making the perilous crossing to Europe in the past week.

Right-wing parties in Italy have voiced increasing anger at what they call an "invasion" of migrants heading to the country from Africa.

The government in Rome has called for help from regional authorities to provide beds for the thousands of new arrivals - but many politicians have been reluctant to comply.

Among them is Matteo Salvini, head of the Northern League party, who accused the government of running a "taxi service" to help people traffickers. Posting on Facebook, he added:

Head of centre-right party Forza Italia, Giorgia Meloni, has also said the boats setting off from north Africa to Italy "should be stopped as they leave", while Claudio Palomba, the prefect of Rimini, told the Telegraphthat the system was "close to collapse".

Official estimates suggest more than 30,000 people have crossed into Italy and Greece since the start of the year, making the treacherous trip across the Mediterranean to escape from Libya - including 10,000 picked up by search and rescue boats in the last week alone.

At least 900 more are believed to have drowned en route.

The tide of desperate migrants and refugees travelling from Libya to Italy shows no sign of stopping, with more overloaded boats being intercepted by authorities every day.

ITV News Correspondent John Ray reports from Sicily:

Police in Sicily have detained 15 Muslim migrants for allegedly throwing 12 Christians overboard during a fight at sea.

Palermo police learned of the incident while interviewing tearful survivors from Nigeria and Ghana, who arrived on Italian soil yesterday morning, after being rescued at sea.

The survivors said they had boarded a rubber boat April 14 at the Libyan coast with 105 passengers aboard.

During the crossing, Nigerian and Ghanaian Christians claim they were attacked by passengers from the Ivory Coast, Senegal, Mali and Guinea Bissau.

This development is the latest in a growing crisis as Italy struggles to cope with a sudden influx of tens of thousands of refugees escaping instability across Africa.

More than 500 new African migrants have arrived in the Western Sicilian port of Trapani.

The Italian Navy ship Comandante Foscari landed today with 586 arrivals - including women and children.

Italy has admitted it is struggling to cope with the thousands of migrants landing on its shores this spring.

These new arrivals come on the heels of a tragedy earlier this week, in which as many as 400 migrants died during the dangerous crossing between Libya and Italy after their boat capsized.

Another 41 migrants are feared to have drowned in the Mediterranean in another shipwreck, according to the International Organisation for Migrants.

The IOM, an aid agency based in Geneva, said that four survivors reported the disaster when they arrived in the Italian port of Tripani today.

The four migrants were found floating in the sea by a helicopter and were rescued by the Italian Naval ship Foscari. They said left Tripoli in Libya on Saturday, and managed to stay adrift for four days.

Nearly 10,000 migrants have been rescued from boats travelling across the Mediterranean to Italy in the past four days alone, the Italian Coast Guard has revealed.

Since the weekend, thousands of people have tried to make the journey, with official estimates suggesting at least 31,500 migrants have entered Italy and Greece since the start of the year as increasing governmental instability and violence in Africa has prompted a surge in numbers fleeing to Europe.

Another 900 are believed to have drowned on the crossing, including 400 people aboard a boat which capsized on Monday.

The UN has called for a more robust search and rescue mission to be set up in the Mediterranean as it claims the European Union's border protection operation, Triton, is struggling to cope.

A boat carrying hundreds of migrants across the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy capsized when those on board all rushed to one side in a desperate bid to be rescued, an official has said.

Around 400 passengers on board the ship are thought to have died when the ship sank on Monday around 75 miles (120km) from the Italian island of Lampedusa, while 145 were rescued.

Experts say many of those unaccounted for are women and children.