Some 6,500 migrants, most
believed to be Africans, were saved off the Libyan coast in 40 separate rescue
missions on Monday, the Italian coast guard said on Twitter, in one of the
largest influxes of refugees in a single day so far this year.
The
migrants were packed on board scores of boats that were not fit to weather the
dangerously unstable high seas.
Data
from the International Organization for Migration released on Friday said
around 105,000 migrants had reached Italy by boat so far in 2016, many of them
setting sail from Libya.
An
estimated 2,726 men, women and children have died over the same period trying
to make the journey.
About
1,100 migrants were rescued from boats in the Strait of Sicily on Sunday as they
tried to reach Europe, the coast guard said. More refugees were expected to set
sail this week because of favourable weather conditions.
Italy
has been on the front line of Europe’s migrant crisis for three years, and more
than 400,000 have successfully made the voyage to Italy from North Africa since
the beginning of 2014, fleeing violence and poverty.
It was also reported
that the international communities need to put pressure on some of these
African countries to enforce laws and perform better to make their country more
appealing to its citizens. Nigeria was cited as example: there have been much
talk about corruption but nothing is actually been done about it.