Refugee Crisis: 13,000 people rescued in one week from drowning in Mediterranean Sea

A total of 668 people were rescued off the coast of Libya by a flotilla of EU ships on Saturday, 28 May. This brings the number of people rescued in the last week to 13,000, said Italian authorities. This rescue is the latest aided by a multinational patrol of Italian, Irish and German ships and other humanitarian groups operating in the Mediterranean, BBC reported.

Warmer weather has led to a surge of people trying to make journeys from Africa to Europe which is now the main migration route after EU-Turkey deal cut the number of people sailing to Greece.

The Irish vessel Le Roisin saved 123 people from a 40ft rubber dinghy and a male body was recovered, Irish military said. Four rescue operations were carried out by the German ships, Italian Coastguard said.

Meanwhile, 4,000 migrants who were saved earlier in the week arrived in Italy on Saturday. Many others were reportedly drowned.

On 25 May, as many as 500 migrants were rescued from the Mediterranean as a boat from Libya capsized killing five people. The dramatic footage of this operation was caught on camera by the Italian navy. On the same day, an additional 108 migrants were rescued by the same patrol boat.

Speaking to hundreds of children at the Vatican, Pope Francis said on Saturday, that the migrants "aren't a danger but they are in danger". He showed the children an orange life jacket that was given to him by a volunteer and told them that the jacket was used by a Syrian girl trying to reach the Island of Lesbos, Greece.

According to statistics, the large number of people making their way to European shores are from Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Libya.