The summer wave of migrant landings on the small Sicilian island of Lampedusa continued Tuesday with a 'maxi-landing' of over 650 people in three boats.
The first boat, containing 290 people, was spotted 30 miles south of the island in the early hours of the morning, while a second wooden craft with 318 migrants on board was intercepted 20 miles south-east several hours later.
A smaller rubber boat with 47 migrants aboard was also escorted to shore after coastguards spotted it floating 40 miles south of the island between Sicily and North Africa.
The landings brought the number of people at the island's temporary detention centre - which has a capacity of 600 people - to 1,500.
Some of the migrants will be transferred to other detention centres in the country by plane and boat, as happened at the end of June with 900 migrants after 1,500 people arrived on the island over a five-day period.
Migrants have been steadily arriving on Lampedusa since the middle of June, taking advantage of fair weather to make the crossing to Italy from the north African coast.
The vast majority of boats are intercepted off Lampedusa, which is closer to the coast of Tunisia than to the Italian mainland.
The number of would-be immigrants landing on the island has increased dramatically in recent years, with 23,000 arriving in 2005 compared to 13,000 in 2004.
Last month 40 people drowned and another 100 went missing when a boat taking would-be migrants capsized on its way to Italy from Libya.
At least 2,000 people die every year as they attempt to cross the Mediterranean, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
