TRIPOLI - More than 140 refugees and migrants rescued at sea by a cargo ship landed in Libya and were taken to a detention centre, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

"In Libya's current context, where outbreaks of violence and widespread human rights violations prevail, no rescued refugees and migrants should be returned there," Charlie Yaxley, spokesman for the UN refugee agency UNHCR, told a briefing.

More than 200 people have already drowned in January and 4,507 have reached Europe by sea despite "bitter cold and great danger", Yaxley said.

UNHCR also denounced "politicking around sea rescues" by European states that have restricted aid groups from conducting missions.

But Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini disagreed.

"You save them, as the Libyan coastguard did, and take them back," Salvini told Mediaset television on Tuesday.

"In that way, people will stop paying human traffickers for a trip that has no future, because it ends in death or with an existence on Italy's streets." (FA)