Italian Coast Guard rescues two migrant ships

The Italian coast guard rescued 800 migrants from two ships in distress on Friday in the Jonio Sea, around 100 miles from Italy's Calabria region.

Captain of the Italian coast guard ship said that it was a difficult rescue operation due to the adverse conditions of the sea. On Friday the coast guard were also dispatched to rescue about 500 people on a smuggler’s boat about 700 miles off the Calabria region.

The European border control agency, Frontex said that crossings in the dangerous central Mediterranean Sea have more than doubled in the first two months of this year, with more than 12,000 irregular crossings.  The U.N. migration agency estimates some 300 people are dead or missing and presumed dead along the perilous central Mediterranean route this year.