Some 3,200 migrants were plucked from overcrowded boats off the coast of
Libya on July 19 and one dead body was recovered, the Italian coast
guard said, as people smugglers operating in Libya took advantage of
calm seas and warm weather.
A coast guard spokesman said the
smugglers had sent at least 26 boats toward Italy, the latest in a tide
of migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa, the Middle East and
Asia.
Three Italian navy ships took part in rescues, picking up
more than 1,000 of those brought to safety. British and Spanish ships
operating within the European Union’s anti-people-smuggling mission also
conducted rescues.
The Doctors Without Borders charity and
migrant rescue groups MOAS and Sea Watch also participated. An Irish
navy ship and a private tug boat completed the cast of rescuers.
A
deal struck between the EU and Turkey and border closures have helped
to stem the flow of migrants from the Middle East and Asia coming
through Turkey and Greece. But Italy has received about the same number
of migrants setting off from North Africa this year as during the same
period of 2015.
As of July 18, 79,861 migrants had arrived in
Italy by sea, compared with 83,119 during the same period of last year,
while the number of migrants arriving in Greece from Turkey was down 95 percent.
Almost
3,000 boat migrants have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean this
year, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Fabrice
Leggeri, head of Frontex, the agency in charge of protecting the EU’s
external borders, said July 12 that the “new front line” was now Italy,
where about 750 people, mostly from sub-Saharan and Western Africa,
arrived each day compared with about 50