Roughly 30 bodies were aboard a migrant boat with nearly 600 passengers escorted to shore by the Italian navy early Monday, ANSA sources said.
Officials suspect the victims asphyxiated. The boat was being tugged to the port of Pozzallo in Sicily, expected to arrive late Tuesday morning.
Officials said more than 5,000 migrants were rescued off the coast of Italy this weekend alone in the government's Mare Nostrum search-and-rescue program launched after roughly 400 migrants died off Sicily last October. It has reportedly saved over 50,000 migrants since, but it is straining to cope and migrant centres are overflowing.
Italy has repeatedly asked the EU for more help in dealing with the influx. But reciprocity on asylum seekers and migrants, a point strongly pushed by Italy, was scratched from the EU summit conclusions under strong pressure from northern European countries.
Italy has also raised the possibility of migrants being processed in Africa.
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