WATCH: 28 survivors of the migrant boat that capsized off the Libyan coast last weekend arrived at Catania late on Monday.
This year is rapidly becoming one of the worst for migrants and asylum seekers trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea, often in overcrowded and rickety boats, in hopes of security and opportunity in Europe.
Searchers continue to look for any survivors after a boat carrying an estimated 850 people* capsized off Libya on Saturday. And three more vessels ran into trouble on Monday, as European leaders called an emergency meeting on the tragic situation and the European Union recommended increasing search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean.
READ MORE: Coast Guard transports shipwreck survivors to Italy as EU ministers discuss crisis
Two boats, one with some 300 people on board and a life raft with between 100 and 150 passengers, all issued distress calls off the coast of Libya on Monday, while en route to the Italian island of Lampedusa — an epicenter in the migrant emergency just off the coasts of Libya and Tunisia.
Video posted online from a separate incident showed the desperate attempt to rescue 93 passengers of a boat that ran ashore on the Greek island of Rhodes on Monday, after travelling across the Aegean Sea from Turkey. At least three people died in that incident. One of the victims was confirmed to be a child.
WATCH: It’s feared almost 1,000 people have died trying for a better life after a migrat boat capsized off Libya over the weekend. As Stuart Greer reports, European leaders are struggling to find ways to stop another disaster.
READ MORE: Sea of sorrows: Many migrants drown trying to reach Italy
United Nations Human Rights Chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein called the mounting loss of life a “continuing failure of governance accompanied by a monumental failure of compassion” and said it’s time for European Union governments to take a “less callous” approach to the situation.
“As we learn of yet more men, women and children who have lost their lives in their search for better and safer lives abroad, I am horrified but not surprised by this latest tragedy. These deaths, and the hundreds of others that preceded them in recent months were sadly predictable,” Al Hussein said Monday.
Who are the migrants?
Although the migrants arriving in southern Europe largely depart from Libya, they aren’t necessarily Libyans fleeing warfare in that country. In fact, they’re mostly coming from sub-Saharan African countries such as Niger, Nigeria and Ghana, Eritrea and war-torn Syria, according to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
UNHCR said Tuesday 350 Eritreans were on board the boat that capsized Saturday, while others came from countries such as Somalia, Sierra Leone, Mali, Senegal, Gambia, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia and Syria.
READ MORE: Lampedusa migrant mistreatment video signals bigger issues: UNHCR
Conflicts, insecurity and lack of opportunity, have led to an influx of migrants and refugees trying to get to Europe. Despite the risk of losing their lives at sea, the number of people attempting to make the dangerous journey is only going up.
According to the UNHCR, approximately 219,000 people made the Mediterranean crossing in 2014. In the first months of 2015, at least 35,000 have arrived in southern Europe. At the same time, 3,500 people didn’t survive the voyage , many of them drowning after their over-capacity boats capsized en route. This year, if officials confirm the number killed in last weekend’s disaster, the death toll could be as high as 1,600. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said just 96 people died in the same period last year.
Where the migrant boats are travelling from and where are they going to
Italy, Greece and Malta are among the countries on the front line of the migrant crisis, but it’s Italy that has its hands full.
Of the 219,000 people who fled to southern Europe last year, Italy dealt with roughly 170,000 of them, the organization reported Friday.
How much are migrants paying and how much traffickers are making
Libya is in a state of crisis since the fall and death of long-time dictator Moammar Ghaddafi in 2011, and its unstable government warring with rebels and Islamist militants, and that only serves to make it easier for human smugglers to take advantage of desperate souls.
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Sunday likened it to “a new slave trade.”
A voyage on one of those trafficking boats can run a passenger between nearly $2,500 to more than $12,000, The Independent reported.
Malta’s prime minister, Joseph Muscat, said the smugglers who arranged the passage of the boat that capsized Saturday, likely made between CDN $1.3 million and $6.5 million by cramming hundreds of migrants into the doomed vessel.
There’s also a hefty cost to patrol for migrant boats and to rescue their passengers when emergencies happen.
The Guardian reported Monday Italy is pleading with the European Union to help with the cost of rescue operations, which run the Italian government about $11.8 million a month.
*PLEASE NOTE: This story has been updated to include a revised estimate of the number of people on board the vessel, according to UNHCR.
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