TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libyan fishermen found the bodies of 28 migrants who appeared to have died of thirst and hunger after their boat broke down off the coast of Sabratha city, a ministry of interior official said on Tuesday.

Since Libya fell into chaos after Muammar Gaddafi’s fall in 2011, the North African country has become the main departure point for migrants hoping to reach Europe by sea. More than 150,000 have made the crossing to Italy annually over the past three years.

The 28 migrants, including four women, were found after sunset by the fishermen, who towed the vessel to shore, Interior Ministry security unit commander Ahmaida Khalifa Amsalam told Reuters. The victims were buried together in a cemetery for illegal migrants, he said.

“Their boat stopped in the middle of the water because the engine was broken,” he said. He did not give details on any of the nationalities, but many illegal migrants are from sub-Saharan Africa.

Smugglers often pack migrants in flimsy inflatable dinghies, dispatching them to sea to get picked up by rescue ships and other vessels once they reach international waters. Some are intercepted and turned back by the Libyan coastguard.

U.N. Libya envoy Martin Kobler sharply criticized conditions in Libyan refugee camps in an interview with German broadcaster Bayerischen Rundfunk.

“The camps are in terrible condition. Women are being sexually abused, people are crowded together in small buildings and are being kept like animals. These are intolerable conditions that must be changed,” he said.

Kobler said it was important to improve conditions in the camps, but the biggest priority should be to address the underlying reasons for the migration flows.

The U.N. migration agency last week reported that growing numbers of African migrants passing through Libya are traded in what they call slave markets before being held for ransom, forced labour or sexual exploitation.

Libya is the main gateway for migrants attempting to reach Europe by sea, with more than 150,000 people making the crossing in each of the past three years.

So far this year, an estimated 26,886 migrants have crossed to Italy, over 7,000 more than during the same period in 2016. More than 600 are known to have died at sea, while an unknown number perish during their journey north through the desert.

The German foreign ministry concluded in January that African migrants face executions, torture and other systematic rights abuses in camps in Libya, according to media reports.</s>TRIPOLI: Libyan fishermen found the bodies of 28 illegal migrants who appeared to have died of thirst and hunger after their boat broke down off the coast of Sabratha city, a ministry of interior official said on Tuesday.

Since Libya fell into chaos after Muammar Gaddafi's fall in 2011, the North African country is the main departure point for migrants hoping to reach Europe by sea. More than 150,000 have made the crossing to Italy annually over the past three years.

Interior Ministry security unit commander Ahmaida Khalifa Amsalam told Reuters the 28 migrants, including four women, had been found after sunset by the fishermen who towed the vessel to shore. The victims were buried together in a cemetery for illegal migrants, he said.

"Their boat stopped in the middle of the water because the engine was broken," he said. He did not give details on any of the nationalities but many illegal migrants are from sub-Saharan Africa.

Smugglers often pack migrants in flimsy inflatable dinghies, dispatching them to sea to get picked up by rescue ships and other vessels once they reach international waters. Some are intercepted and turned back by the Libyan coastguard.</s>TRIPOLI - Libyan fishermen found the bodies of 28 illegal migrants who appeared to have died of thirst and hunger after their boat broke down off the coast of Sabratha city, a ministry of interior official said on Tuesday.

Since Libya fell into chaos after Muammar Gaddafi’s fall in 2011, the North African country is the main departure point for migrants hoping to reach Europe by sea. More than 150,000 have made the crossing to Italy annually over the past three years. Interior Ministry security unit commander Ahmaida Khalifa Amsalam told Reuters the 28 migrants, including four women, had been found after sunset by the fishermen who towed the vessel to shore.

Meanwhile, nearly 9,000 mainly African migrants were rescued in the Mediterranean this past long weekend after being put by smugglers in Libya onto unseaworthy boats heading toward Italy, UN aid agencies said on Tuesday.

The migrants, many from Nigeria and Senegal with some from Bangladesh, are among an estimated 20,000 held by criminal gangs in irregular detention centres in Libya, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said.

On release, they pay to board the overcrowded boats, often just inflated rubber vessels that could not cross the Mediterranean, in the hope of starting a new life in Europe.

“It is obvious that better spring weather has encouraged smugglers to take people from their detention centres,” IOM spokesman Leonard Doyle told a news briefing in Geneva.

“The smugglers have clearly taken them to sea and pushed them out in the hope and belief that they would be rescued.”

More than 35 vessels, including private charity boats, the European Union border agency Frontex, the Italian and Libyan coast guards and 12 merchant ships were involved in rescuing dozens of vessels, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said.

“This was an overwhelming search and rescue activity by all sides involved,” UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch said.

“We repeat our calls on Europe, on the governments, to be out there saving lives. NGOs have been a great help in terms of filling up that vacuum,” he added.

At least 900 migrants have died or have gone missing while attempting to reach Europe by sea so far this year, including 97 missing in the latest incidents between Thursday and Sunday, during which time 18 bodies were also found, Doyle said.

Some 36,000 migrants have been rescued, against 24,000 at this time last year, he said.

IOM reported earlier this month that growing numbers of African migrants passing through Libya are traded in what they call “slave markets” before being held for ransom, forced labour or sexual exploitation.

“So there’s a full-on economy of trafficking or trading in migrants who think they are going to a better life in Europe and end up effectively in a gulag of exploitation,” Doyle said.</s>Almost 30 migrants have been found dead in a boat drifting off the coast of Libya as the number of refugees dying in attempts to reach Europe reach record highs.

Fishermen found the bodies of 28 people, including four children, in waters near the smuggling hub of Sabratha after more than 8,300 asylum seekers were rescued over the Easter weekend.

“Their boat stopped in the middle of the water because the engine was broken,” said the interior ministry’s security commander, Ahmaida Khalifa Amsalam.

He said the victims appeared to have died of thirst and hunger after their vessel was left drifting in the Mediterranean.

They were buried in a cemetery dedicated to migrants whose bodies are regularly washed up on the coast of Libya, which remains embroiled in a bloody civil war six years after the UK helped overthrow Muammar Gaddafi.

Smugglers have increasingly resorted to packing migrants into flimsy dinghies that are unable to survive the crossing to Europe, with some being intercepted and forced back by the Libyan coastguard, others being rescued by EU officials and aid agencies, and many sinking.

Tuesday’s tragic discovery with the latest incident of refugees being found dead inside boats, with a worrying trend emerging suggesting engines are being removed or sabotaged at sea.

The bodies of more than 70 migrants washed up in a dinghy in Zawiyah earlier this year in what aid agencies said suggested the “deliberate punishment or murder of migrants”.

Joel Millman, from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), said that boat’s engine was believed to have been removed at sea, possibly by smugglers or armed gangs.

“In most cases you don’t find remains in a boat – you find them washed up or floating, although there have been cases of suffocation on board,” he told The Independent.

“We have heard about arguments occurring with smugglers, where people refuse to get in a boat because they are concerned it isn’t seaworthy.

“Then there’s violence and people are killed, while the rest are forced inside.”

The latest disaster came as the Austrian government called for the Central Mediterranean passage to be shut down, like the crossing from Turkey to Greece and Balkans route.

“A rescue in the open sea cannot be a ticket to Europe, because it hands organised traffickers every argument to persuade people to flee for economic reasons,” interior minister Wolfgang Sobotka told Germany’s DPA news agency.

“[Stopping crossings to Europe] is the only way to end the tragic and senseless deaths in the Mediterranean.”

His comments followed months of growing political attacks on NGOs, who say they have no involvement in trafficking and are only conducting search and rescue missions because of the EU’s failure to tackle the refugee crisis.

More than 5,000 refugees were drowned, suffocated or died of hypothermia at sea in 2016 – the vast majority on the Central Mediterranean route from Libya, which is now the deadliest crossing in the world.

That total is expected to be surpassed this year, with the official UN death toll already nearing 1,000 even before the start of the peak season.

The controversial EU-Turkey deal slowed comparatively shorter and safer boat crossings over the Aegean Sea to a trickle last year, but the number of migrants on the treacherous passage from Libya to Italy has continued to increase.

More than 40,000 asylum seekers have been taken to shore by rescue ships in Italy so far this year, while others arrive in Spain, Greek islands and Cyprus.

The arrivals are putting huge pressure on the Italian government, which is already housing around 176,000 migrants in reception facilities, while thousands more remain trapped in Greece, Serbia and across Europe.

European leaders met in Malta earlier this year to discuss efforts to stem the crisis but resolutions to increase funding and support for Libyan authorities were criticised amid allegations of widespread human rights abuses.

The country remains divided between battling militias accused of kidnapping, torturing, detaining and ransoming migrants or forcing them into labour and prostitution as a source of income.

Nato has received a request from the fragile Libyan Government of National Accord for support, while Italy has pledged millions of euros in funding for anti-smuggling initiatives.

It is preparing to deliver patrol boats to the country’s coastguard, which is itself accused of killing and beating migrants, for increased push-back operations.

Flavio di Giacomo, an IOM spokesman in Italy, said the vessels’ imminent arrival could be driving a dramatic increase in attempted crossings that saw more than 8,300 people arrested from 55 boats over the Easter weekend.

The rescues saw 13 bodies recovered, including that of an eight-year-old boy.

Mr di Giacomo said smugglers are telling their customers: “'You have to hurry up and leave the country right now because otherwise in a couple of months you will be rescued by the Libyan coast guard and you will be sent back,' which is the last things that migrants would like to do.”</s>Warm weather and calm seas usually spur smugglers to send migrants across the Mediterranean come spring. But aid groups say another timetable might be behind a weekend spike: the looming start of beefed-up Libyan coast guard patrols designed to prevent migrants from reaching Europe.

Over Easter weekend, rescue ships plucked some 8,360 people from 55 different rubber dinghies and wooden boats off Libya’s coast, Italy’s coast guard said. Thirteen bodies were also recovered.

While such numbers are not unheard-of for this time of year, they come as Italy is preparing to deliver patrol boats to Libya as part of a new European Union-blessed migration deal.

Italy and Libya inked a deal in February calling for Italy to train Libyan coast guard officers and to provide them with a dozen ships to patrol the country’s lawless coasts. EU leaders hailed the accord as a new commitment to save lives and stem the flow of migrants to Europe, where the refugee influx has become a pressing political issue.

Aid groups, however, have criticized it as hypocritical and cruel, arguing that migrants who have already endured grave human rights abuses in Libya will face renewed violence, torture, sexual assault and other injustices if they are returned by the Libyan coast guard. Doctors Without Borders called it “delusional” while even the Vatican’s own Caritas charity said it was worrisome.

International Organization of Migration spokesman Flavio Di Giacomo said improved weather conditions certainly are fueling renewed flows in recent days. But he said smugglers are also telling their customers, “‘You have to hurry up and leave the country right now because otherwise in a couple of months you will be rescued by the Libyan coast guard and you will be sent back,’ which is the last things that migrants would like to do.”

The United Nations refugee agency also cited the pending arrival of Italian patrol boats as a possible cause for the weekend’s high numbers, although spokeswoman Barbara Molinario said it was too early in the season to identify trends.

“For now it’s premature, even if 8,300 in 55 operations is a high number,” Molinario said.

Overall, Some 35,700 people have been rescued in the central Mediterranean route in 2017, up from 24,974 in 2016, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said. Molinario noted that the numbers are constantly in flux and a week or two of poor weather could alter the year-on comparison. The IOM reports some 900 people are known to have died so far this year.

Some 800 people rescued over the weekend arrived in Sardinia on Tuesday, where officials struggled to find accommodation for them after some 900 were brought to the island by rescue boats last month. They hailed from Syria, Egypt and Libya, as well as more than a dozen other African countries.

The entry into force of the new Libyan patrols could heighten tensions that have already flared between the European Union and humanitarian organizations, which have assumed increasing role in rescuing migrants as their vessels tend to patrol closer to Libya’s territorial waters, and their numbers have skyrocketed in the last two years.

The European border agency Frontex has said these humanitarian aid ships in 2016 were responsible for 40 percent of all rescues, up from 5 percent a year earlier. Frontex has essentially accused them of encouraging smugglers to set migrants off in increasing numbers and on increasingly flimsy vessels, since rescue is so close at hand.

“While there is no question that saving lives is an obligation of whoever operates at sea … it seems the Libyan smugglers are taking full advantage of this fact, and they do so with impunity,” Frontex spokeswoman Izabella Cooper said.

The aid groups have denied being in cahoots with smugglers, but Catania’s chief prosecutor, Carmelo Zuccaro, testified to parliament last month about the phenomenon, in particular the funding behind the aid groups’ operations.

Cooper says there are both “push and pull” factors at play in the Libyan migration saga, with wars, poverty and famine pushing the migrants to Libya and the relative ease with which they then can reach Europe pulling them to make the risky crossing.

But behind it all is money: Europol reported that smugglers made some €5-6 billion in 2015, a peak year for arrivals in the EU, making it one of the most profitable activities for organized criminals in Europe. On the Libyan end, an EU military task force reported in December that Libyan coastal communities earned around €270-325 million a year from smuggling operations.

Libyan fishermen meanwhile found the bodies of 28 migrants who appeared to have died of thirst and hunger after their boat broke down off the coast of Sabratha city, a ministry of interior official said on Tuesday.

The North African country has become the main departure point for migrants hoping to reach Europe by sea. More than 150,000 have made the crossing to Italy annually over the past three years.

The 28 migrants, including four women, were found after sunset by the fishermen, who towed the vessel to shore, Interior Ministry security unit commander Ahmaida Khalifa Amsalam told Reuters. The victims were buried together in a cemetery for illegal migrants, he said.

“Their boat stopped in the middle of the water because the engine was broken,” he said. He did not give details on any of the nationalities, but many illegal migrants are from sub-Saharan Africa.

Smugglers often pack migrants in flimsy inflatable dinghies, dispatching them to sea to get picked up by rescue ships and other vessels once they reach international waters. Some are intercepted and turned back by the Libyan coast guard.

U.N. Libya envoy Martin Kobler sharply criticized conditions in Libyan refugee camps in an interview with German broadcaster Bayerischen Rundfunk.

“The camps are in terrible condition. Women are being sexually abused, people are crowded together in small buildings and are being kept like animals. These are intolerable conditions that must be changed,” he said.

Kobler said it was important to improve conditions in the camps, but the biggest priority should be to address the underlying reasons for the migration flows.

The U.N. migration agency last week reported that growing numbers of African migrants passing through Libya are traded in what they call slave markets before being held for ransom, forced labor or sexual exploitation.

Libya is the main gateway for migrants attempting to reach Europe by sea, with more than 150,000 people making the crossing in each of the past three years.

So far this year, an estimated 26,886 migrants have crossed to Italy, over 7,000 more than during the same period in 2016. More than 600 are known to have died at sea, while an unknown number perish during their journey north through the desert.

The German foreign ministry concluded in January that African migrants face executions, torture and other systematic rights abuses in camps in Libya, according to media reports.</s>ROME (AP) - Warm weather and calm seas usually spur smugglers to send migrants across the Mediterranean come spring. But aid groups say another timetable might be behind a weekend spike: the start of beefed-up Libyan coast guard patrols designed to prevent migrants from reaching Europe.

Over Easter weekend, rescue ships plucked some 8,360 people from 55 different rubber dinghies and wooden boats off Libya's coast, Italy's coast guard said. Thirteen bodies were also recovered.

While such numbers are not unheard of for this time of year, they come as Italy is preparing to deliver patrol boats to Libya as part of a new European Union-blessed migration deal.

FILE - In this April 6, 2017 file photo, a migrant rescued from a rubber boat by members of Proactiva Open Arms NGO, in the Mediterranean sea, about 56 miles north of Sabratha, Libya. Most migrants on the Mediterranean are now trying to reach Italy. Those numbers have dramatically increased since the European Union and Turkey signed an agreement last year that allowed Greece to send new asylum-seekers back to Turkey. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, File)

Italy and Libya inked a deal in February calling for Italy to train Libyan coast guard officers and to provide them with a dozen ships to patrol the country's lawless coasts. EU leaders hailed the accord as a new commitment to save lives and stem the flow of illegal migration to Europe, where the refugee influx has become a heated political issue.

Aid groups have criticized the accord as hypocritical and cruel, arguing that migrants who already have endured grave human rights abuses in Libya will face renewed violence, torture, sexual assault and other abuse if they are returned by the Libyan coast guard.

International Organization of Migration spokesman Flavio Di Giacomo said improved weather conditions certainly are fueling renewed flows in recent weeks. He said smugglers are also telling their customers, "'You have to hurry up and leave the country right now because otherwise in a couple of months you will be rescued by the Libyan coast guard and you will be sent back,' which is the last things that migrants would like to do."

The United Nations refugee agency also cited the pending arrival of Italian patrol boats as a possible cause for the weekend's high numbers, although spokeswoman Barbara Molinario said it was too early in the season to identify trends.

"For now it's premature, even if 8,300 in 55 operations is a high number," Molinario said.

Overall, Some 35,700 people have been rescued in the central Mediterranean route in 2017, up from 24,974 in 2016, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said. Molinario noted that the numbers are constantly in flux and a week or two of poor weather could cause fewer people to make the dangerous journey.</s>Warm weather and calm seas usually spur smugglers to send migrants across the Mediterranean come spring. But aid groups say another timetable might be behind a weekend spike: the looming start of beefed-up Libyan coast guard patrols designed to prevent migrants from reaching Europe.

Over Easter weekend, rescue ships plucked some 8,360 people from 55 different rubber dinghies and wooden boats off Libya's coast, Italy's coast guard said. Thirteen bodies were also recovered.

While such numbers are not unheard-of for this time of year, they come as Italy is preparing to deliver patrol boats to Libya as part of a new European Union-blessed migration deal.

Italy and Libya inked a deal in February calling for Italy to train Libyan coast guard officers and to provide them with a dozen ships to patrol the country's lawless coasts. EU leaders hailed the accord as a new commitment to save lives and stem the flow of migrants to Europe, where the refugee influx has become a pressing political issue.

Aid groups, however, have criticized it as hypocritical and cruel, arguing that migrants who have already endured grave human rights abuses in Libya will face renewed violence, torture, sexual assault and other injustices if they are returned by the Libyan coast guard. Doctors Without Borders called it "delusional" while even the Vatican's own Caritas charity said it was worrisome.

International Organization of Migration spokesman Flavio Di Giacomo said improved weather conditions certainly are fueling renewed flows in recent days. But he said smugglers are also telling their customers, "`You have to hurry up and leave the country right now because otherwise in a couple of months you will be rescued by the Libyan coast guard and you will be sent back,' which is the last things that migrants would like to do."

The United Nations refugee agency also cited the pending arrival of Italian patrol boats as a possible cause for the weekend's high numbers, although spokeswoman Barbara Molinario said it was too early in the season to identify trends.

"For now it's premature, even if 8,300 in 55 operations is a high number," Molinario said.

Overall, Some 35,700 people have been rescued in the central Mediterranean route in 2017, up from 24,974 in 2016, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said. Molinario noted that the numbers are constantly in flux and a week or two of poor weather could alter the year-on comparison. The IOM reports some 900 people are known to have died so far this year.

Some 800 people rescued over the weekend arrived in Sardinia on Tuesday, where officials struggled to find accommodation for them after some 900 were brought to the island by rescue boats last month. They hailed from Syria, Egypt and Libya, as well as more than a dozen other African countries.

The entry into force of the new Libyan patrols could heighten tensions that have already flared between the European Union and humanitarian organizations, which have assumed increasing role in rescuing migrants as their vessels tend to patrol closer to Libya's territorial waters, and their numbers have skyrocketed in the last two years.

The European border agency Frontex has said these humanitarian aid ships in 2016 were responsible for 40 percent of all rescues, up from 5 percent a year earlier. Frontex has essentially accused them of encouraging smugglers to set migrants off in increasing numbers and on increasingly flimsy vessels, since rescue is so close at hand.

"While there is no question that saving lives is an obligation of whoever operates at sea ... it seems the Libyan smugglers are taking full advantage of this fact, and they do so with impunity," Frontex spokeswoman Izabella Cooper said.

The aid groups have denied being in cahoots with smugglers, but Catania's chief prosecutor, Carmelo Zuccaro, testified to parliament last month about the phenomenon, in particular the funding behind the aid groups' operations.

Cooper says there are both "push and pull" factors at play in the Libyan migration saga, with wars, poverty and famine pushing the migrants to Libya and the relative ease with which they then can reach Europe pulling them to make the risky crossing.

But behind it all is money: Europol reported that smugglers made some 5-6 billion euros in 2015, a peak year for arrivals in the EU, making it one of the most profitable activities for organized criminals in Europe. On the Libyan end, an EU military task force reported in December that Libyan coastal communities earned around 270-325 million euros a year from smuggling operations.

 

 Trisha Thomas in Rome contributed to this report.</s>A humanitarian vessel, the Iuventa, found the boy hanging onto a fuel tank in the sea on Tuesday. He was transferred first to an Italian Coast Guard ship, then to a Spanish frigate and brought to the Sicilian island of Lampedusa early on Wednesday.

"He said that everyone else died. But there's some hope that the Italian Coast Guard picked up others," said IOM spokesman Flavio Di Giacomo in Rome, after speaking to staff in Lampedusa. It should become clear on Thursday whether others survived, as a Coast Guard vessel disembarks migrants in eastern Sicily that day, he said.

"The boy said they left Sabratha, Libya, a couple days ago on a rubber boat with 147 sub-Saharan Africans on board, including five children and some pregnant women," Di Giacomo said.

In the past two days, rescuers have picked up more than 1,100 migrants at sea, and recovered one body, Italy's Coast Guard said. The Coast Guard did not comment on the latest shipwreck.

So far this year nearly 600 migrants have died trying to reach Italy from North Africa, IOM estimates, after some 4,600 deaths last year. Migrant arrivals to Italy are up more than 50 percent this year on the same period of last year.

Early on Wednesday the Golfo Azzurro, a humanitarian vessel, rescued about 400 migrants - mainly from Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Gambia and Bangladesh - including 16 women and two children.

They were found drifting in a wooden boat without power about 16 kilometers (10 miles) off the coast of Sabratha, the most frequently used departure point currently used by people smugglers in Libya, and will now be transported to Sicily.

"The migrants kissed and hugged their rescuers and sang songs" after they were brought to safety, said Reuters photographer Yannis Behrakis, who is onboard the Golfo Azzurro.

"My brother back home convinced me to make the trip," said Gambian Kalifa Kujabi, 17, after the rescue. He said he played for Gambia's soccer academy and paid $600 for the passage. "My brother said that I can only have a future as a soccer player in Europe."

Italy's parliament on Wednesday approved a law aimed at protecting unaccompanied minors in a measure welcomed by humanitarian groups.

Also on Wednesday, the Senate voted to pass a decree that foresees new detention centers for migrants who are to be deported, cutting the length of the appeals process for those whose asylum requests have been rejected. The decree now goes before the lower house.</s>Calmer summer seas have led to a surge in people trying to reach Italy from North Africa. Italy has picked up more than 70,000 migrants so far this year in its search-and-rescue mission, called "Mare Nostrum" or "Our Sea".

The number of dead is also rising. At the start of July, the UNHCR estimated 500 migrants had died in the Mediterranean in the past six months, compared to 700 during the whole of last year.

A merchant ship rescued 61 migrants and collected five bodies from a sinking rubber raft late on Sunday after its position was signalled by the navy, said the force. Survivors said 15 others probably drowned.

Italy is struggling to keep up with the increase in migrant boats this year and has asked the European Union for more help in rescuing and housing them.

The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said Maltese authorities on Saturday recovered the bodies of 29 people believed to have died from carbon monoxide poisoning in the hold of a boat.

On Friday, as many as 40 people went missing after a migrant boat capsized near the Libyan coast, according to media reports that the Italian navy could not confirm. A merchant ship recovered hundreds of survivors.

Most migrants have fled Syria's civil war and Eritrea's harsh military service, according to the UNHCR. Many of them set off for their journey to Europe from the coast of strife-torn Libya.

Italy's navy has been patrolling the waters between Africa and Sicily since October, when 366 people drowned after their boat capsized just a mile from the Italian coast. (Reporting by Steve Scherer)</s>More than 1,000 migrants picked up off the coast of Libya Sunday have arrived at a port on the Italian island of Sicily.

 

 A German navy ship brought the rescued migrants to the port of Catania Monday aboard the FGS Rhein.

 

 Some 29,000 migrants, most of them fleeing poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, have arrived in Italy this year after being rescued by European military ships or private charity organizations.

 

 The U.N. migration agency (IOM) reported last week that 31,993 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea in 2017 through April 9, with over 80 percent arriving in Italy and the rest in Spain and Greece.

 

 This is considerably lower compared to 172,774 through the first 97 days of 2016. The number of deaths recorded, however, is almost the same for both years.

 

 The numbers of newcomers are expected to rise during the spring's months of good weather.
Libyan fisherman discover the bodies of 28 migrants in a broken-down boat off the coast of Sabratha.