ROME – More than 3,000 migrants were arriving in Italy Sunday after being plucked from rafts and dinghies in the Mediterranean by the Italian coast guard, the Spanish Navy and vessels skippered by NGOs including Save the Children as people smugglers took advantage of fine spring weather, coast guard officials said.

 Among the rescue ships arriving was the Phoeniz that docked in Catania carrying 394 migrants and the body of a 21-year-old man from Sierra Leone who his elder brother travelling with him said had been shot and killed on a whim by a smuggler because he refused to give the trafficker a baseball hat the African was wearing. The body was picked up by the Phoenix from MOAS, an NGO that has been investigated by Italian magistrates for allegedly conniving with people smugglers, a charge MOAS strongly denies.

 The renewed smuggling activity followed a two week lull. In all 3,149 rescued migrants were due to arrive in Sicily Sunday after being saved from flimsy craft in 20 separate operations coordinated by the Coast Guard operational headquarters in Rome, officials said.

 Even the normally inactive Libyan coast guard managed to save 140 people off the coast of Tripoli according to the English-language Libya Observer.

 In all as many as 32,253 illegal migrants have landed in Italy from Libya so far this year, an increase of 29 percent compared to the same period last year, the interior ministry says.

 jp