An international rescue fleet plucked almost 5,900 migrants from rickety boats making the perilous sea crossing for North Africa to Europe on Saturday and Sunday, Italy’s coastguard said yesterday.
The British warship HMS Bulwark picked up more than 1,000 refugees, including 10 pregnant women, the Ministry of Defence said.
The Italian coastguard, which coordinates rescue efforts from Rome, said British, Swedish, Spanish and Italian ships and a merchant vessel had all been called upon to go to the aid of 15 different boats on Sunday, rescuing 2,400 people in all.
On Saturday, 3,500 migrants were rescued about 45 miles from the Libyan coast.
Proposals for migrant quotas border on insanity
The tide of migrants and refugees risking the sea crossing to reach Europe from Africa is on the rise this year but, although the EU has bolstered its presence in the Mediterranean, it is still debating how to handle the refugees and migrants once they are ashore.
EU interior ministers are due to discuss a European Commission plan on June 16 to disperse 40,000 asylum seekers from Italy and Greece to other EU member states.
The turmoil in Libya, which has become one of the main transit routes to Europe, is giving free rein to people smugglers. During the first five months of the year, there were 46,500 sea arrivals into Italy, a 12 per cent increase on the same period of last year, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said. Italy’s government projects that 200,000 in all will come this year, up from 170,000 in 2014
Meanwhile yesterday Hungary's ruling Fidesz party said it wants to draw up legislation to effectively close its southern borders to illegal migrants, according to a Fidesz politician.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban has criticised EU proposals for migrant quotas as 'bordering on insanity'.
The quotas were drafted in response to the thousands of deaths among asylum-seekers trying to reach Europe across the Mediterranean.
Antal Rogan, the head of Fidesz's parliamentary group, said that by the end of May, 50,000 migrants had crossed Hungary's borders illegally, compared with 43,000 in the whole of 2014. Most asylum-seekers move on to other EU member states but Germany and Austria have signalled that they were planning to send some 15,000 migrants back to Hungary.
He said that, therefore, 'urgent steps' needed to be taken.