More than 1.400 migrants have been rescued from overcrowded boats, including a sailboat, in four separate operations in the Mediterranean Sea off southern Italy, the Italian coast guard said today.

The statement said the rescue began late Monday night and ended this morning in the Ionian Sea off the east coast of Calabria, where a coast guard vessel picked up about 590 migrants from a fishing boat and later brought in about 650 migrants from another fishing boat.

A coast guard motorboat and an Italian border police vessel assisted the fourth vessel, rescuing 130 migrants.

Authorities did not immediately release details about the nationalities of the rescued passengers or the routes taken by the migrant boats. But in general, a huge number of migrant boats depart from the Turkish coast of the Ionian Sea.