Italy rescues 4500 migrants in one day

The Italian coast guard says it has rescued around 4500 migrants and refugees from rickety boats in the Mediterranean.

File image of port security officers with a boat of migrants waiting to disembark after arriving in Messina, Sicily, June 26, 2016. Source: AAP

Some 4500 migrants have been rescued from rubber dinghies and a wooden boat in the Mediterranean in one day, Italy's coast guard says, as the sea calmed after a rough weekend.

More than 67,000 migrants have arrived in Italy by sea so far this year, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said before the coast guard reported the latest rescues on Tuesday.

Arrivals are down from the same period of 2015, but the number of deaths on the perilous route has jumped.

Ten women were found dead in the bottom of a rubber boat last week .

The coast guard said it had coordinated more than 30 rescue operations, which were carried out by its own ship Diciotti, Italian navy ships, and vessels working for EU border agency Frontex and humanitarian organisations.

Giving its latest estimate on Tuesday for the number of people who have crossed the Mediterranean this year, the IOM said most of the boats set off from Libya, followed by Egypt.