The bodies of eight migrants have been found at sea off the coast of Libya by rescuers working to help stranded migrant workers, the Italian coastguard said on Tuesday.

Some 500 survivors in total were pulled to safety, the coastguard told AFP. Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms, which was taking part in the rescues, said the bodies were recovered by the Santa Lucia merchant ship.

The latest deaths came as the Italian government presented plans for a naval mission in Libyan territorial waters that aims to reduce the flow of migrants from the coast.

Director-General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) William Lacy Swing (L) visits the Tripoli branch of the Anti-Illegal Immigration Authority, in the Libyan capital on March 22, 2017. /AFP Photo‍

“We are here to stop more people drowning, today eight dead and four drifting boats” in distress, Proactiva’s founder Oscar Champs said on Twitter.

The charity said there were 79 women and 39 minors – including four young children – among those rescued.

Nearly 95,000 people have been brought to safety in Italy this year, a rise of one percent on the same period last year, according to the interior ministry.

The government intends to send a logistics ship that could support Libyan units and will also offer a patrol boat, Italian Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti told lawmakers on Tuesday.

African migrants are gathering at the Tripoli branch of the Anti-Illegal Immigration Authority, in the Libyan capital on March 22, 2017. /AFP Photo 

However Italy has no intention to create a naval blockade, which would be a “hostile act”, she said, insisting that support for the Libyan mission was the aim and cooperation was necessary.

“Italy has always respected Libyan sovereignty,” Pinotti added.

At least 2,385 migrants have died during the perilous crossing since January, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.

The latest deaths come as aid groups – privately-funded boats performed 26 percent of rescues in 2016, rising to 35 percent so far this year – are caught in a row over how they operate.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) refused Monday to sign a code of conduct on migrant-saving operations in the Mediterranean.

Workers help on February 22, 2017 to recover bodies of some of the 74 migrants who drowned in the Mediterranean trying to reach Europe, after they washed up on a beach near Zawiyah on Libya’s northern coast, west of the capital Tripoli. /AFP Photo

The code, created to address the biggest migrant phenomenon in Europe since World War II, lays down 13 rules Italy insists must be followed to prevent aid groups rescuing migrants from acting as a magnet for human traffickers.

Sticking points cited were obligations for rescue boats to operate with an Italian police official on board and a ban on moving rescued migrants from one aid vessel to another while still at sea.

But the rules have been widely criticized by the NGOs as making it more difficult for them to save lives.

(Source: AFP)