As number of Italy-bound migrants soars, so does death toll
With the arrival of warmer weather, the desperate exodus of migrants across the strait of Sicily has resumed, as record numbers cross the sea from North Africa to Italy on rickety, overcrowded boats.
The Italian coast guard said Tuesday, they've rescued almost 8,500 migrants in the waters off the coast of Libya since the weekend. In the first three months of 2015, 15,000 migrants are believed to have reached Italy.
"The unprecedented influx of migrants at our borders, and in particular refugees, is unfortunately the new norm and we will need to adjust our responses accordingly," said the EU's commissioner for migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos, on Tuesday.
On Sunday alone, the Italian Coast Guard coordinated the rescue of migrants from 22 separate vessels. The mission also included an Italian navy boat, and merchant ships and trawlers in the vicinity were enlisted to help.
An Icelandic patrol boat, part of the European Triton border protection operation, also took part.
The European Union took over patrols in the Mediterranean in January, when the Triton operation replaced the Italian Mare Nostrum mission, an aggressive search and rescue mission which ventured into international waters with the specific aim of saving lives.
Over the weekend, at least nine people drowned when their overcrowded boat capsized off the coast of Libya. Another body was found by the coast guard aboard a vessel on Monday. Experts warn that as the number of migrants making the dangerous crossing increases, so will the death toll. In 2014, an estimated 3,500 died making the journey. The number for the first three months of this year is already much higher than last year's. According to the International Organization for Migration, at least 480 migrants died in the Mediterranean during that period, as opposed to fewer than 50 last year.
On Monday, Italian police arrested an alleged human smuggler. Migrants who were on the dinghy he was piloting said the smuggler threw the body of a young man who died of gasoline fumes overboard, to be eaten by sharks circling the raft.
Conflicts and poverty in the Middle East and Africa push migrants to make the dangerous crossing. Most boats leave from Libya, where lawlessness has given human traffickers a free hand to stage departures.
On Tuesday, the UNHCR praised the work of Italian authorities and renewed its call for establishing a coordinated, European-wide search and rescue operation. The European Union is expected to announce a review of its migration policies in early May. But as the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi warned: "Without peace in Libya, the immigration will continue."