A Turkish container ship saved 466 migrants aboard a sinking boat off the Libyan coast in the Mediterranean.

According to reports, the migrants did not have any life vests and were taken on board the container ship.

The ship named "Roseline A" was heading to Tunisia when its crew spotted the sinking boat with migrants.

The migrants were welcomed onto the Turkish-flagged ship for a day, and its cooks treated their guests to some Turkish meals.

The heroic actions of the Roseline A crew members were highly appreciated by the rescued migrants, who almost lost their lives trying to illegally travel to Italy. The migrants were then handed to the Italian coast guard.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees have crossed the Mediterranean in smugglers' boats in hopes of a better life in Europe, but thousands attempting to reach the continent die each year. Libya is one of the prime launching points.

In September 2016, the crew of Purki, another Turkish cargo vessel rescued 132 migrants in a damaged rubber boat en route to Italy while the migrants, including three infants, were sailing some 100 miles off the Libyan coast.

In a related development, migrants rescued from a rubber boat that departed from Libya last week said as many as 30 people were trampled or drowned during their voyage, as this year's Mediterranean death toll climbed to more than 1,700, the U.N. said yesterday.

They arrived in Pozzallo, Italy, on Monday and said their boat lost its motor and took on water hours after leaving Libya.

Some fell into the sea and drowned and others were trampled during the panic, including a small child, leaving between 20 and 30 dead. Two bodies were recovered.

Migrant arrivals by sea to Italy are up about a third this year to roughly 60,000, and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has recorded more than 1,700 dead or missing. More than 50 bodies have been brought to Italy over the past few days and dozens more are feared dead, the agency said.

A second group of survivors from a rubber boat told the UNHCR that 82 were feared dead after falling into the water when their boat deflated last Wednesday.

On the same day, 33 bodies were retrieved, including 13 women and seven children, when a wooden boat nearly capsized and dumped some 200 people into the water as rescue operations began.

Migrants fleeing violence and economic hardship across Africa have repeatedly said that taking to the sea is the only way to escape from captivity and abuse in Libya, where people smugglers operate without impunity.

"Several refugees and migrants who landed on Lampedusa over the weekend had gunshot wounds," said Babar Baloch, a UNHCR spokesman in Geneva.

"One man told our staff that he was shot in the leg by members of Libyan militia who also stole his belongings," Baloch said.

"Another man was shot in the arm and tortured by a trafficker to extract money from him. Many survivors also report having witnessed friends being fired at or killed while in Libya," he said.