3.000 immigrants saved in Italy in 24 hours

In the last 24 hours, the Italian Navy rescued 3.000 illegal immigrants who wanted to come to Europe by boat, the Navy announced today.

1.300 foreigners were rescued today, and more than 1.600 last night. During May, 14 people died in a shipwreck in the sea between Libya and Italy.

The Italian Navy has rescued almost 20.000 illegal immigrants since Operation Mare Nostrum (Our Sea) was launched on October 18 last year.

After two shipwrecks near the island of Lampedusa in October 2013, when more than 400 immigrants died, the Italian government launched a major operation "Mare nostrum" and engaged warships and other ships and reconnaissance planes to avoid new tragedies.

According to the UN, between 20 and 17.000 people have died in the last 20.000 years trying to reach Europe by sea.