An Italian coast guard spokesman said 19 rescue operations by the coast guard or ships operated by non-governmental organisations had saved a total of 2,074 people on 16 overcrowded rubber dinghies and three small wooden boats.
- MSF Sea (@MSF_Sea) April 14, 2017Many more people could have died in a day like this if we arrived few hours later.
MSF said in a series of tweets that NGOs were being forced to fill gaps in service provision left by the European Union coastguard.
Italian NGO Sea Eye and the German group Jugend Rettet were also aiding in the rescue efforts.
Separately, Medicins Sans Frontieres and Italian authorities said they had successfully brought to shore 649 migrants in the southern Italian port of Reggio di Calabria.
The improving Spring weather may have contributed to the sudden surge of sea crossings, analysts say.
More than 2,000 people were rescued on Friday and 3,000 on Saturday in dozens of separate rescues, the Italian Coast Guard said.
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However, she mentioned that the late actress will be heavily featured in the upcoming " The Last Jedi " this coming December. Saw Guerrera will be back, voiced by Forest Whitaker, with Two Tubes as his co-pilot, flying a U-Wing from Rogue One .
Friday's rescues come a day after a shipwreck left at least 97 migrants feared drowned off Libya. Over the busy weekend, Frontex says the Norwegian Siem Pilot, now on rotation for Frontex's Triton program, rescued more than 500 of the almost 7,000 people pulled to safety. Just 23 men were rescued, clinging to a flotation device.
Libyan Red Crescent volunteers are seen near the bodies of 74 refugees that were washed ashore, near Zawiyah, on Libya's northern coast, on February 20, 2017.
This unprecedented situation serves as evidence of the deteriorating humanitarian crisis in the Central Mediterranean.
The number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean is down from its peak in 2015 with almost 32,000 migrants estimated to have arrived in Europe by sea so far this year.
A note on terminology: The BBC uses the term migrant to refer to all people on the move who have yet to complete the legal process of claiming asylum.
More than 24,000 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean Sea from Libya to Italy over the first three months of 2017, much more than the 18,000 that crossed during the same time period in 2016, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
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