Thousands of illegal immigrants arrive in Italy each year many after making a perilous crossing from North Africa to Europe. The rate of migration increases during the warmer summer months.

Hundreds of illegal immigrants arrived in Italy overnight landing on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia.

An estimated 408 immigrants landed but maritime authorities have also identified other groups that were expected to arrive on Friday.

Most of the immigrants were men but nearly 65 were women and there were several children aboard.

Immigrants have recently been using satellite phones to ask for help when making the crossing from North Africa to Italy and the coast guard has been rescuing many of them.

The small island of Lampedusa, near Sicily, is a common destination for immigrants and its temporary reception centre is close to collapse.

It has a capacity to help 600 people and more than 1000 immigrants have arrived in the past week.

The number of landings usually increases during the warmer months of the year between March and October.

Most of the immigrants that arrived in Italy in the past 24 hours were from the African nations of Somalia, Eritrea , Nigeria and Ghana.

Almost 40 percent of the prisoners held in Italian jails are foreign-born, according to an Italian news report published earlier this week with statistics from the Italian penitentiary administration department.

Many of these people have been jailed because of their illegal status, and have not been involved in violent behaviour or other criminal allegations, the report said.

Nevertheless, Italy's central statistics agency shows the country has one of the lowest rates of immigration in the European Union, at 5 percent, compared to Switzerland which has 20 percent followed by Austria with 9.4 percent.