Italian navy helping migrants (FILE PHOTO)

The Italian Coast Guard on Friday, said it saved nearly 2,000 migrants in the Mediterranean from possible drowning within two days.

“On Friday, 900 people were saved in 10 different operations, while 970 were saved on Thursday,’’ the Italian Coast Guard said.

According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), in the first nine months of 2016, 132,000 migrants travelled illegally across the central Mediterranean route to reach Europe.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country had taken in the largest share of migrants mostly from the Middle East and Africa, had been giving aid to Northern African countries in an effort to slow the flow of migrants to Northern Europe. (dpa/NAN)