The summer wave of migrant landings continued on Wednesday when over 200 people landed on the southern shores of Sicily.
Two boats containing 53 migrants were intercepted by the Italian coastguard off the Sicilian mainland, one floating 14 miles off the coast near Siracusa and the other 20 miles off the coast near Ragusa.
Three boats with 161 migrants were stopped off the Sicilian island of Lampedusa. Among the passengers of one boat were two women and ten children.
Wednesday's arrivals came in the wake of further landings on Tuesday, which included 297 people arriving in two boats at Lampedusa.
Two other boats with 53 people was intercepted off Ragusa, one boat with six off the island of Pantelleria, and one boat with 12 off the southern coast of Sardinia.
More than 800 migrants arrived on Italian shores between Sunday and Monday, most of them on the small island of Lampedusa, which is closer to the coast of Tunisia than to the Italian mainland.
Immigrants intercepted off Lampedusa were taken to the small island's temporary detention centre, which has a capacity of 600 people and is already bursting at the seams.
On Wednesday over 400 of the 1,500 migrants at the centre were moved to other centres across Italy by plane and boat, while four flights to move another 300 are planned.
In 2006, over 97% of the migrants illegally travelling to Italy landed in Sicily and on Lampedusa, according to government statistics.
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.
