Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal and Sierra Leone nationals make up the five hundred migrants who were rescued in seven operations launched at the weekend in the Mediterranean to stem the tide of illegal immigration into Europe.
The ill-equipped boat conveying the migrants to Europe was accosted eighty kilometers off the Libyan coast by the Italian coastguard.
A spokesman for the coastguard told French News Agency (AFP) yesterday that four of the rescue operations had already wound up but the others were ongoing.
One hundred and forty Nigerians were rescued.