14 bodies recovered, about 6,100 saved in rescues

ROME — Fourteen bodies have been recovered and about 6,100 people have been saved in migrant rescues in the Mediterranean Sea over the weekend, the Italian coast guard said on Sunday.

Vessels run by German nongovernmental organizations Jugend Rettet and Lifeboat Project, the coast guard and the European Union border agency Frontex, contributed to four rescue missions on Sunday that saved 400 people, a statement said.

Earlier, the coast guard said it had coordinated 20 operations Saturday, which intercepted about 2,400 survivors and retrieved seven bodies; and 24 missions at sea on Friday, which picked up about 3,300 people and seven dead migrants.

In Sicily, almost 3,300 migrants were due to disembark in five different ports, news agency ANSA said. Seven bodies were also due to be returned, it added.

About 460 migrants and the body of a pregnant woman in her mid20s arrived in the port of Naples early Sunday, the ANSA news agency said, quoting local Interior Ministry official Gerarda Pantalone.

Also taking part in the rescues, the German navy saved 844 people in a number of actions, their operations command reported Sunday. They are to be brought to an Italian harbor aboard the naval support ship Werra.

The German military has since 2015 been part of Operation Sophia, an international operation aimed at combatting refugee smuggling in the Mediterranean.