ROME: Italian Navy and Coast Guard ships rescued around 1,500 migrants aboard five boats in the southern Mediterranean in less than 24 hours, officials said on Sunday.

The ship, the Landhelgisgaeslan, arrived in the evening at the Sicilian port of Pozzallo with the rescued migrants, including 14 children and five pregnant women, who were hospitalized.

All of the migrants were rescued on Saturday by two coast guard ships and one navy ship in five separate operations, the coast guard said in a statement.

Italian police meanwhile have identified eight suspected Tunisian traffickers.

According to the reports, the migrants came from 13 different countries: Sudan, Ghana, Morocco, Mali, Mauritanie, Senegal, Pakistan, Nigeria, Syria, Palestine, Eritrea, India and Tunisia.

The conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa, especially in Libya which is a key point of departure, have led to an increase in illegal immigrants seeking to enter Europe.

The number of migrants entering the EU illegally in 2014 nearly tripled to 276,000 people compared to 2013, according to the EU borders agency Frontex, nearly 220,000 of them arriving via the Mediterranean.

The UN said at least 3,500 people died last year while crossing the sea, making it the deadliest migrant route in the world.

Three of the migrants’ boats were in difficulty and sent rescue requests via satellite phones while they were off the coast of Libya. The Italian vessels spotted the other two while heading for the others. The migrants were all transboarded onto the Italian ships and were being taken to either the island of Lampedusa or ports in Sicily, the statement said.

About 170,000 migrants entered EU through Italy last year by way of the dangerous sea crossing organized by human traffickers.