German Chancellor Angela Merkel has pressed fellow European nations to share the burden of the influx of migrants.

Around 200 migrants are feared dead as authorities collect the bodies of victims who drowned off the Libyan coastal city of Zuwara.

The Irish Naval vessel the LÉ Niamh is bringing more than 220 people rescued in the Mediterranean to port this morning in Sicily.

Italy’s coast guard said it co-ordinated the rescue of some 4,400 migrants in a single day, a record-setting number.

Irish naval crews have rescued another 225 people trying to cross the Mediterranean.

At least 40 migrants have died and some 300 others have been rescued in the Mediterranean Sea north of Libya, the Italian navy says.

The European Commission yesterday approved €2.4bn ($2.6bn) of aid over six years for countries including Greece and Italy that have struggled to cope with a surge in numbers of immigrants.

The Defence Minister is preparing to extend the Irish Naval Service’s humanitarian mission in the Mediterranean beyond next month’s original deadline.

A Catholic Bishop has likened the loss of innocent lives in the Mediterranean to the the Irish experience on 'coffin ships' during the time of the Great Famine.

Five people have been arrested in connection with the latest migrants tragedy in the Mediterranean.

President Michael D Higgins says the European response to the migrant crisis has been "shameful".

Aid workers say that 360 migrants rescued from the latest boat disaster were heavily traumatised and many could not communicate.

The LÉ Niamh rescued almost 100 migrants yesterday.

Irish Naval crew on board the LÉ Eithne used colouring books and toys to calm the fears of children they plucked from tiny boats floating dangerously in the Mediterranean.

Ireland is to take 600 extra migrants as part of efforts to ease the migration crisis in the Mediterranean.

A second Irish naval vessel will set sail from Cork today, bound for Mediterranean for humanitarian search and rescue duty.

European Union leaders have agreed to relocate 40,000 migrants from Italy and Greece to other EU countries over the next two years, in an effort to share the burden of a growing crisis.

Ships from Norway and Denmark have picked up nearly 1,000 migrants from small boats off the coast of Libya in the past 24 hours.

Ireland will likely opt-in to EU arrangements to take a specific number of migrants who come to Europe illegally, to help take the pressure off frontline states such as Italy.

Italian police in riot gear have forcibly removed a few dozen African migrants who had been camping out for days at the Mediterranean border with France.

Irish vessel the LÉ Eithne is expected to dock in a port in Italy today, with 399 migrants on board rescued from the Mediterranean over the weekend.

Irish Navy Vessel, the LÉ Eithne, has rescued migrants in the Mediterranean on two inflatable dinghys with 89 people on board.

The crew of the LE Eithne have rescued more than 400 migrants stranded in the Mediterranean Sea.

Irish naval ship, LE Eithne, has helped to rescue more than 200 migrants today as they attempted to cross the Mediterranean in makeshift inflatables.

Ireland's Navy flagship, LÉ Eithne, has been involved in its first migrant rescue in the Mediterranean.

UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon has urged Europe to do more to save lives in the Mediterranean migrant crisis.

Ireland is considering taking migrants who illegally cross into the EU in a change from its long-held policy of opting out of such policies at European level.

European Union nations have approved plans for a naval operation to go after the trafficking networks that send thousands of migrants across the Mediterranean towards Europe.

France supports a plan to distribute asylum-seekers among European countries by quota, the country’s top security official has said, saying the current system puts an unfair burden on a handful of nations.

EU countries would face international refugee quotas under proposals to be unveiled this week.

THE death of 14 people, when they were hit by a night-time express train as they walked along a remote river gorge in Macedonia, is another reminder of what may be one of the pressing issues of the age — migration.

The man prosecutors say was in charge of the boat which capsized in the Mediterranean - killing at least 800 migrants - has appeared in court.

As the Taoiseach meets with his EU counterparts to discuss the ongoing loss of live in the Mediterranean, we hope he will keep Ireland’s long history of migration in mind.

EU leaders focused on how to patrol the EU’s borders to dissuade smugglers from putting migrants on boats in the knowledge the patrols would have to pick up anybody found in trouble.

Wealthy countries like to portray themselves as unfairly shouldering the burden of the world’s refugee population but this simply is not true, writes Éamonn Meehan

Officers from the Irish Navy are set to be deployed in the Mediterranean on search and rescue missions.