Almost 500 migrants arrived at the port of Catania on Wednesday after being rescued earlier this week near the coast of Libya, with the influx of refugees heading to Europe showing no signs of slowing.
Hundreds of migrants, mostly men from sub-Saharan Africa, huddled under grey blankets on the deck of the Italian coast guard vessel Diciotti as they started to disembark in pouring rain.
A second ship, the Aquarius, operated by the non-governmental group SOS Mediterranee, was due to dock at an Italian port in the next two days carrying some 120 migrants and the bodies of nine people who died trying to make the perilous Mediterranean crossing.
Mathilde Auvillain, a spokeswoman for SOS Mediterranee aboard the Aquarius, said that among the migrants were a group of 23 people who were plucked from the sea on Tuesday by an oil tanker after their rubber boat started to sink.
Four bodies were recovered from the scene, but many more were believed to have drowned, with survivors saying that 122 people had been on the boat when it left Libya.
Some 167,000 migrants have reached Italy by boat so far this year, exceeding the total for all of 2015 which stood at 154,000. The death toll in the Mediterranean has surged this year to more than 4,270 compared to 3,777 in 2015, according to the International Organization for Migration.
While last year departures dropped off from October as the weather conditions worsened, this year the decline has been less pronounced, Interior Ministry data show. 
Separately, Italy arrested 15 people and placed dozens more under investigation on Wednesday on suspicion of aiding illegal immigration and forging documents for mainly Chinese citizens, finance police said.
Police in the central Tuscan town of Prato, home to the country's biggest Chinese community, carried out 111 raids in an operation dubbed "White Collars".
The swoop came as Prime Minister Matteo Renzi prepared to host Chinese President Xi Jinping, who was to stop on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia later on Wednesday on his way to Peru for a summit.
Some 50,000 Chinese work in Prato, many in textile firms which depend on the labour of illegal immigrants. The businesses are often accused of ignoring safety rules and evading taxes. A total of 83 people were placed under investigation on Wednesday. Two Chinese nationals and one Italian are in jail and a further 12 Chinese are under house arrest, a police spokesman said.
The investigation centres around two labour consultancy firms with offices in Prato, whose owners and some employees are accused of setting up a business helping non-EU citizens, mainly Chinese, to stay in Italy illegally.
Police said the most common tactic was to arrange fake hirings and issue false payslips to obtain residency documents. Once the residency permit was issued, the worker would be formally sacked, but in reality keep on working illegally.
The investigation also unveiled alleged criminal association, defrauding Italy's social security and pensions agency, inducing public officials to make false declarations.
Prato's Chinese community clashed with police over workshop inspections in July. The area is also the focus of an investigation into alleged money laundering between Italy and China.

Source: Arab News