Horrifying photographs showing pregnant
women and
children among dead migrants found in a rubber dinghy has
shone a light on the grim reality of the desperate scramble to cross the
Mediterranean into Europe.
A Spanish
charity found 167 migrants alive and 13 dead in yet another rescue
operation involving rubber boats crossing the deadly stretch of sea.
More
than 2,200 migrants have died trying to reach Europe across the
Mediterranean so far this year according to the International
Organization for Migration - meaning on average 10 people a day die
making the journey.
The latest grim
salvation mission was 15 miles off the coast of Sabratha in Libya and
the migrants on board were said to be sub-Saharan and the failed journey
resulted in more than a dozen deaths.
As
some migrants' corpses lie naked in the middle of the dinghy, others
can be seen in the pictures sitting around in life-jackets waiting to be
rescued.
The European Union has
extended the mandate of its naval operation targeting migrant smuggling
in the Mediterranean until the end of 2018 and tasked it with monitoring
illegal oil trafficking from Libya.
Operation
Sophia, which has naval ships and aircraft monitoring the
Mediterranean, aims to disrupt smuggling networks and train Libya's
coastguard as a way of stemming the flow of desperate migrants
attempting the risky crossing from Libya to Italy in unseaworthy boats.
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