Also, at least seven people drowned, including an eight-year-old child, as aid workers struggled to save more than 1,500 migrants in one operation.
The first boat, carrying 41 men and 11 women of sub-Saharan origin, was located by rescue teams shortly after midnight in the Alboran Sea east of the Strait of Gibraltar.
The United Nations estimates that 32,750 people have arrived in Europe by sea so far this year, despite the risky winter weather.
The migrants, many from Nigeria and Senegal with some from Bangladesh, are among an estimated 20,000 held by criminal gangs in irregular detention centres in Libya, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said.
IOM Chief of Mission for Libya Othman Belbeisi commented on this development that "if a migrant is being killed, sometimes it is considered normal and numerous migrants are buried without identification". Those numbers have dramatically increased since the European Union and Turkey signed an agreement previous year that allowed Greece to send new asylum-seekers back to Turkey.
Daniel Cormier overpowers Anthony Johnson at UFC 210
My family knew. "To knock out Cormier would be the icing on the cake you know what I mean?" This whole time I've been here. Johnson started off strong in the first round as he caught Cormier in what appeared to be a fatal knee to the nose.
Migrants on a rubber dinghy await rescue by MOAS off the Libyan coast. More people will die.
When reached for comment about Zuccaro's legal case, Frontex did not provide a comment. "We are where we're needed, what's the European Union doing meanwhile?"
Six years since the revolution that toppled dictator Moammar Gaddafi, Libya has become a key departure point for migrants risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.
Rescue ships took on thousands of survivors from dinghies in deteriorating weather between Friday and Sunday. "#Iuventa and @seaeyeorg are unable to move due to the high amount of people on board and nearby us in rubber boats!"
Police said Sunday that the three were "members of a human traffickers' network" and that 13 of the migrants they were holding were fellow Pakistanis, three of them minors. The weekend is set to be the latest marker in the ongoing humanitarian crisis. "Two boats. One hundred people in each one", he said.
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