The Libyan police, assisted by Italian officials, have arrested two men suspected of having organised the crossing of 200 migrants from Libya to Italy over the past few days.

The two, a 26-year-old man from Eritrea and the Libyan boat owner were arrested at the same time as Italy assumed responsibility for the migrants off Portopalo.

The boat was first spotted in the Libyan Rescue Region, 70 miles north of Benghazi on Friday afternoon. The alert was raised when somebody on board used a satellite phone to inform a migrant in Italy, who in turn informed the Italian authorities and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.

A Libyan warship which was meant to pick up the migrants yesterday did not show up.

The Italian authorities had directed an Italian tanker, the Antignano, to provide lee shelter to the migrants' boat, since it was too difficult to transfer anybody on board because of the rough sea.The boat transited the Maltese Search and Rescue Zone but the Maltese authorities insisted that the migrants were not in distress or in immediate danger.

Informed sources close to the rescue operation reported that once the Antignano intercepted the migrants’ boat, Rome SRR Centre gave it instructions to sail into the Maltese search and rescue area, despite the fact that the closest port of call at the time was the Libyan port of Benghazi.

The boat meanwhile drifted closer to the Italian search and rescue zone, with the tanker and a Maltese patrol boat close by. The captain of the tanker confirmed to Italian media that the migrants refused offers of assistance from the Maltse patrol boat because they wanted to get to Italy.

The Italian tug boat reached the migrants at 1.15 this afternoon.