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Massive rescue effort saves 10,000 migrants and refugees in 2 days

It’s one of the largest mass rescue operations undertaken in the Mediterranean Sea.

A rescue boat is filled with migrants taken from a vessel in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya in this Tuesday Oct. 4, 2016 image taken from video. CREDIT: AP Photo
A rescue boat is filled with migrants taken from a vessel in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya in this Tuesday Oct. 4, 2016 image taken from video. CREDIT: AP Photo

The Italian coastguard and navy rescued almost 11,000 migrants and refugees on their way to Italy in the Mediterranean Sea so far this week, following a massive effort requiring more than 70 rescue operations on Monday and Tuesday.

Tuesday’s rescue operations, which took place off the Strait of Sicily, saved more than 4,650 people. And on Monday, about 6,055 people were rescued about 30 miles north of Libya — one of the highest numbers of people saved in a single day, Italian and Libyan officials said.

More than 20 people reportedly suffocated in the hold of a fishing boat, Reuters reported, putting the total number of deaths over the two-day period at 50. That includes 11 bodies found washed up on a beach near Tripoli and another two people who died when their boat sank off Sabratha. Meanwhile, three babies were born in good health on a ship heading for Sicily, based on reports relayed to the Guardian.

Aris Messini, a photographer with Agence France-Presse, witnessed a rescue operation from aboard a Spanish NGO boat.

Refugees and migrants are intercepted on a daily basis, but rescue operations of this magnitude have been rare since at least the end of August, when 10,000 people were saved in 30 rescue operations over a 36-hour period.

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Roughly 132,000 people have arrived in Italy since January, 3,054 of whom have died. Many people desperate to reach Europe leave from Libya, an easy departure point because of the lack of a central government to prevent human smuggling. Libya is roughly 180 miles away from Italy at its closest point.

Once rescued and dropped off at the Italian islands of Sicily and Lampedusa, refugees and migrants are then fingerprinted and undergo security and medical checks. They are then transported to various facilities around the country to wait for the government to determine whether to grant them humanitarian relief.

Syria’s six-year civil war has driven more people to seek refuge in other countries, but it’s hardly the only place facing increased volatility and insecurity. In Afghanistan, civilian homes have been used as shields after Afghan Army special forces took back the main city square in Kunduz from the Taliban recently. About 200,000 Afghans applied for asylum in Europe last year, making them the second-largest group of applicants after Syrians.

The large rescue operations come less than three weeks after the United Nations held a high-level summit to address the ongoing migration crisis. Although the meetings were a bold step to get major world leaders to commit to resettling people fleeing disaster, most of the major commitments aren’t set to take place until 2018.