The Italian Navy and Coast Guard have rescued almost 800 migrants in the past 24 hours.

Naval units headed by the frigates San Giusto and the Grecale picked up the migrants from a number of dinghies south of the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Frontex, the EU border agency, in a report earlier this week said it is expecting a summer of “high migration pressure” in the central Mediterranean, with intelligence pointing to thousands of migrants in Libya waiting to cross to Europe.