A record number of migrants will come to Europe this year running from war and poverty in the Arab and sub-Saharan countries. At the same time, human traffickers become more aggressive and pack the desperate people onto insecure boats that set sail to Europe via the Mediterranean sea. Many asylum seekers and illegal immigrants are reaching the continent, but hundreds are dying during the crossing, said Fabrice Leggeri, executive director of Frontex, the European Union’s border cooperation agency, cited by Reuters.
The chaos in Libya increased the number of these crossings especially to nearby Italy and since the beginning of 2015 was the highest ever recorded. Not even the winter storms could stop the human smugglers who already sent to Europe more than 5,600 people. Since last Friday alone, 3,800 migrants had been rescued from the Mediterranean according to the International Organization for Migration.
U.N. data shows that there were approximately 300,000 irregular crossings to E.U. in 2014 and at least 218,000 people entered via the Mediterranean, while other migrants came overland through the western Balkans. An estimated 3,300 people died during the crossings last year and more than 300 are believed to have died this month after trying to reach Europe in inflatable rafts.
Some of the people saved this week told the refugee agency they paid between 500 and1,000 dollars for a place in the rubber dinghies so the traffickers earn up to 100,000 dollars with every boat. This makes them more aggressive than before and in one case this month they even threatened Italian coastguards because they wanted to take back their boat and use it again.
Operation Triton, the EU coastguard mission patrolling the Mediterranean, currently employs nine boats and two aircraft after Leggeri had put out a call to E.U. member states to provide resources. In the same time, Italy continues it’s own rescue missions in the Mare Nostrum project, being criticized by some that say saving migrants at sea just encourages more to try. On Tuesday, Italian authorities on the island of Lampedusa received 1,200 newly-arrived migrants in a center created for a third of that number.