Rescuers pick up hundreds of migrants across Mediterranean

BARCELONA/VALLETTA,: Spanish coast guards rescued nearly 600 migrants trying to make the perilous crossing from Africa, authorities said on Saturday, while off the coast of Libya coastguards recovered bodies of five migrants and picked up 185 survivors.

Elsewhere in the Mediterranean, Malta´s army made a medical evacuation from a stranded rescue ship that Italy and Malta have refused to take in, while the container ship Alexander Maersk picked up 113 migrants from a boat off southern Italy on Friday, the ship owner said.

The rescues come ahead of a hastily-arranged EU summit in Brussels on Sunday to discuss disputes over migration. The Maltese government said its army was answering a request to offer medical assistance to a person onboard the MV Lifeline boat and would also provide humanitarian supplies.

On Friday evening and Saturday morning Spanish rescuers picked up 449 people from 20 dinghies in the Mediterranean, as well as 129 people from a wooden raft headed from West Africa to the Canary Islands, the maritime rescue service said on Twitter.

Earlier this month Spain offered safe haven to the charity ship Aquarius that was blocked from docking in Italy or Malta as Rome´s new government tries to pressure European partners to shoulder more of the burden of immigration from North Africa.