Libyan rescue services have rescued around 80 illegal immigrants who were in distress on the high seas, just 60 miles from Lampedusa.

Italian news media reports that the migrants, who had entered the Maltese Search-and-Rescue Region of Responsibility (SRR), launched their distress calls via a satellite phone to contacts in Italy and Malta.

It could not be ascertained if the migrants were onboard a rubber dinghy or a wooden fishing vessel. They claimed to be Eritrean. The Italian rescue authorities of Messina and Palermo coordinated the operation with the Libyan authorities, and maintained contact with the Armed Forces of Malta's Rescue Co-ordination Centre.

No Italian or Maltese naval or rescue assets are understood to have been involved in the operation.

A group of some 200 Eritreans were escorted to Capo Passero, Sicily, yesterday.