The group included 46 children separated from their families.

Babies and toddlers could be seen among those disembarking from the plane at the Pratica di Mare military airport on Monday evening.

The refugees were evacuated from Libya to Italy in a joint operation between UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and Italian and Libyan authorities.

“This evacuation is a vital lifeline for people who faced serious threat and dangers inside Libya,” Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said.

“It’s now crucial that other States match this gesture and offer similar evacuation places for refugees caught up in the conflict. Turning a blind eye will have real and tragic consequences.”

Italy is the first country to have stepped forward to receive evacuees from Libya since the recent violence began.

Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, of the far-right League party, said the arriving refugees were fleeing war.

“Italy’s ports are largely open to the women and children, to young people who are really fleeing war,” he said.

However he stressed that Italy is not open to “the human traffickers” and the makeshift boats which are used in attempts to take people across the Mediterranean.

Since coming to power last year, Italy’s populist government has closed off then nation’s ports to NGO rescue ships and has adopted a strict “anti-migrant” decree which makes it easier to strip people of Italian citizenship and has made the process of obtaining citizenship more difficult.

The controversial bill was quickly used to force migrants out of a camp near Rome.

A change in status for refugees under the decree also resulted in many being thrown out of shelters and left with nowhere to go.

Libya has been in chaos since the NATO-backed uprising that deposed and killed dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.

The UNHCR said the security situation inside Tripoli continues to worsen as rival forces engage in battles across the city.

“In recent days, airstrikes have claimed the lives of civilians and destroyed community infrastructure,” the agency said in a statement.

“More than 3,300 people are particularly at risk inside detention centres close to imminent or ongoing clashes.

“They are at risk of being abandoned or caught up in the conflict should the fighting spread to their locations.”