ROME: Italy’s lower house gave the green light to a draft bill that would decriminalise illegal immigration Wednesday, hours after the Navy rescued 730 migrants adrift off its southern coast.

The immigrants, including 124 women and 29 minors, were picked up from two boats attempting the perilous journey across the Mediterranean from north Africa after being spotted by patrol helicopters.

The draft law passed by Italy’s lower Parliament decriminalises undocumented immigration, except in cases where a person expelled by the government returns illegally to the country.

The bill, which must go before Rome’s senate before it becomes law, is part of a government drive to reduce prison overcrowding.

Italy’s Centres for Identification and Expulsion (CIEs) detention facilities have come under criticism for the conditions in which immigrants are kept and the long periods they are held there.

Last year the European Court of Human Rights ruled that overcrowding violates the basic rights of inmates in Italy’s jails.

Thousands of migrants arrive on Italy’s shores from north Africa every year, despite government attempts to clamp down on boat arrivals after hundreds drowned in two shipwrecks late last year.