More than 105,000 migrants have reached Italy by boat this year, fleeing poverty and violence in their home countries, according to the International Organization for Migration.
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It disclosed that numerous boats were flimsy rubber dinghies that become dangerously unstable in high seas.
PALERMO, Sicily (AP) – Two Eritrean baby boys born prematurely, who were rescued at sea along with thousands of other migrants, were being treated at a hospital in Palermo on Wednesday.
Yet it was the deadly route between Libya and Italy that was preferred by migrants which led to the world waking up to the biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War as increasing numbers of people boarded lethal boats and the European Union scaled back search and rescue operations, suspending them in 2015.
Over the past few days thousands of asylum seekers have been rescued by Italian and Frontex vessels with some 10,000 refugees rescued in a 36-hour period while attempting to make the treacherous journey across the Mediterranean.
This image grab taken from a handout video and released by the Italian coastguard (Guardia Costiera) on 30 August 2016, shows migrants on a boat in the Mediterranean Sea during a rescue operation.
Susy Hodges asked him whether this large number of boats represented a new surge in the number of migrants desperately trying to cross the sea to Europe. However, the total number of people arriving in Italy is almost the same as this time a year ago – at about 115,000, compared to about 116,000 in the first eight months of 2015.
A day earlier, the Italian coast guard coordinated 35 interventions, intercepting 44 dinghies; eight small, wooden boats; one ship with 200 on board; and another carrying 704 people, said Flavio Di Giacomo, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration. More than 13,000 people were rescued in under a week at the end of May, and 8,300 more at the start of this month.
Some 40 co-ordinated rescue missions took place about 20km (12 miles) off the Libyan town of Sabratha, it added.
The operation came just weeks after a rescue vessel was boarded by armed men who shot at aid workers off the coast of Libya.
The instability in Libya has made the country a hub for people-trafficking. Last year, more than 1 million migrants traveled to Europe.
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This route remains nearly as lethal today as it was two years ago with record numbers of migrants embarking on the journey between Libya and Italy.
