Southern Italy is swiftly becoming a new hotspot for illegal migration to Europe, according to Italian media reports that have identified the coast of Calabria at toe of the Italian mainland as an increasingly busy gateway to the European Union.

So far this year, some 7,000 migrants have arrived in the Calabrian town of Roccella Ionica and its neighbouring municipalities - three times as many as last year - Italian daily La Repubblica reported.

According to other Italian media, more and more migrants are choosing the route from Egypt or Turkey to Calabria rather than attempting the shorter crossing from Libya to the Italian island of Lampedusa, along which they risk being intercepted by Libya's coast guard.

Local authorities have stressed that they do not have the facilities to take many more arrivals.

"Roccella has done a lot, but cannot do the impossible," the ANSA news agency quoted Mayor Vittorio Zito as saying.

According to ANSA, almost 330 migrants arrived on a fishing boat in Roccella Ionica on Saturday.

Elsewhere, Doctors Without Borders rescued almost 300 people from distress at sea in multiple operations in the central Mediterranean Sea on Saturday. Among those rescued were many women and children, the medical NGO announced on Sunday, adding that those rescued had been found drifting in rubber and wooden boats.

dpa