Members of a group of 301 migrants rescued between Malta and Libya yesterday suffered stab wounds.

A number of asylum seekers claimed they were beaten up and robbed just before being set out to sea and picked up by the Malta-based Migrant Offshore Aid Station.

The migrants were treated by doctors from Médecins Sans Frontières and were on their way to Italy. None of them was seriously injured. The majority of those on board the Moas vessel Phoenix are men from West Africa.

More than 1,000 migrants were rescued off the coast of Libya on Friday in eight rescue operations coordinated by the operations centre of the Rome Coast Guard.

A five-year-old girl died and 13 migrants missing

Meanwhile, a five-year old girl died and as many as 13 migrants may be missing at sea off the Greek island of Lesbos, the Greek coastguard said.

The incidents take place as Europe grapples with a flow of refugees fleeing Syria, Iraq and Africa. Migrants stranded in Croatia yesterday made renewed efforts to head north despite moves by Slovenia and Hungary to hold them back.European leaders will once again be meeting in Brussels on Wednesday for an extraordinary summit to tackle the migrant crisis.

It will be held a day after interior ministers make their second attempt in little more than a week to break a deadlock on proposals by the EU executive for the redistribution of 120,000 asylum-seekers around the 28-nation European bloc.