It is one of the most perilous journeys on Earth, risking drowning, starvation, rape and exploitation. Yet 60,000 make the journey from sub-Saharan Africa to Italy alone. Thousands more drag themselves over the razor wire that separates Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Melilla.
"Europe cannot be considered civilized if it turns the other way at the sight of dead bodies floating in the sea," Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said on Tuesday.
But reception most get is far from civilised. In December, Italy was facing calls for sanctions after a gruesome video emerged of naked migrants shivering as they waited to be hosed down for scabies. And they are the lucky ones who make it.
21 Pictures That Show The Extent Of
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Open Image Modal North-African immigrants sit in an Italian Navy's amphibious vessel as they are brought to the Italian Navy ship 'San Giorgio' after being rescued at sea off the coast of Libya
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Open Image ModalNorth-African immigrants sit in an Italian Navy's amphibious vessel as they are brought to the Italian Navy ship 'San Giorgio'
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Open Image ModalIn this photo released by the Italian Navy on May 22, 2014, a fishing boat filled with migrants is towed into the Navy ship San Giorgio headed to Sicily. (AP Photo/Italian Navy, ho)
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Open Image ModalMigrants disembark from Italian Navy Ship Grecale, carrying 206 migrants and 17 bodies of the victims of a shipwrecked boat between Sicily and the north of Africa (credit:Getty Images)
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Open Image Modal During the last ten years more than 30,000 migrants have died or disappeared in the Mediterranean Sea trying get to the Italian coast. (credit:Getty Images)
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Open Image ModalItalian Navy Ship Grecale Carries 206 Migrant Survivors From Recent Shipwreck (credit:Getty Images)
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Open Image ModalMigrants sit on the deck of Italian Navy Ship Grecale (credit:Getty Images)
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Open Image ModalItalian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi asked the EU for more help to handle the influx of migrants. (credit:Getty Images)
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Open Image ModalSurvivors of a migrant boat shipwreck wait an evacuation on an Italian warship, at the Catania harbor
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Open Image ModalItaly threatened to send asylum-seekers across Europe without more help (credit:Getty Images)
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Open Image ModalA handout image released by the US Navy Media Content Service (NMCS) on 07 June 2014 shows boatswain's mates aboard the multipurpose amphibious assault ship USS Bataan (LHD 5) transporting a person in distress on a medical litter off the 11-meter captain's gig into the well deck of USS Bataan, deployed in the Mediterranean Se
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Open Image ModalIn this photo released by the Italian Navy on Sunday, June 15, 2014, and taken on Saturday, June 14, 2014, a boat filled with migrants receives aid from an Italian Navy motor boat off the coast of Sicily, Italy
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Open Image ModalA woman receives aid after being rescued from a fishing boat filled with migrants. The boat was towed into the Navy ship San Giorgio headed to Sicily. (AP Photo/Italian Navy, ho)
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Open Image ModalA handout picture provided by the Italian Navy Press Office shows some of the small boat carrying 233 migrants off the coast of a Sicilian island has been rescued by the Italian navy. The passengers came from Eritrea, Nigeria, Somalia, Pakistan, Zambia and Mali, authorities said.
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Open Image ModalLampedusa is the site of repeated migrant landings and sometimes disasters.
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Open Image ModalIn two separate incidents last October, roughly 400 migrants died off its coast when their boats capsized
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Open Image ModalWould-be immigrants sit atop a boarder fence separating Morocco from the north African Spanish enclave of Melilla (credit:Getty Images)
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Open Image ModalWould-be immigrants sit atop a boarder fence separating Morocco from the north African Spanish enclave of Melilla on April 3, 2014 following a morning assult on the boarder in an attempt to cross into Spain. (credit:Getty Images)
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Open Image Modal (credit:Getty Images)
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Open Image ModalSyrian refugees are pictured during early morning while sleeping outside the Centre for Temporary Stay of Immigrant (credit:Getty Images)
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Open Image ModalSome 800 sub- Saharan people tried to reach Spain in several attempts and according to official sources, ten of them managed to enter Spanish territory (credit:Getty Images)
Countries are at breaking point. At the EU summit this week, Renzi is expected to ask the EU to take over the administration of Mare Nostrum, the £7.2m-a-month Italian search-and-rescue operation that saves thousands of migrants from death on the seas or drowning in the Mediterranean.
It was launched in October 2013, in response to the drowning of 366 migrants after their boat disintegrated off the shore of Sicily.
His plea is likely to fall on deaf ears. EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström has already told the Wall Street Journal that no more funds will be made available, even though Mare nostrum costs the Italian government more than the EU spends on policing the borders of all 28 states put together. "It isn't possible. We don't have the money," she said.
Renzi has also called for a better sharing of the burden between nations. While his country takes thousands, many of the EU nations accept barely more than a handful.
Countries like Spain, Italy, Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom have tens of thousands who apply, but just a few hundred applied to stay in other EU nations like Latvia or Slovenia, and larger nations are pressing for others to take a fairer share of the burden, despite population differences.
Malmström agreed that some EU states need to do more. "If all member states have a proper functioning asylum system, people will say, 'Yes, I will have good, transparent, fair treatment in my asylum application and I can live a good life also in Estonia, or the Czech Republic," she told the WSJ.
Migrant Boat Capsizes
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Open Image ModalIn this video image made available by the Armed Forces of Malta from an overflying aircraft, a life raft carrying survivors floats in the sea between Malta and the Italian island of Lampedusa, Friday Oct. 11 2013, following the capsize of a boat carrying an estimated 200 migrants. (AP Photo/ Armed Forces of Malta) (credit:AP)
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Open Image ModalIn this video image made available by the Armed Forces of Malta from an overflying aircraft, a life raft carrying survivors floats in the sea between Malta and the Italian island of Lampedusa, Friday Oct. 11 2013, following the capsize of a boat carrying an estimated 200 migrants. (AP Photo/ Armed Forces of Malta) (credit:AP)
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Open Image ModalIn this video image made available by the Armed Forces of Malta from an overflying aircraft, a life raft carrying survivors floats in the sea between Malta and the Italian island of Lampedusa, Friday Oct. 11 2013, following the capsize of a boat carrying an estimated 200 migrants. (AP Photo/ Armed Forces of Malta) (credit:AP)
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Open Image ModalIn this photo released by the Maltese Army, migrants are aboard a life raft after a boat carrying an estimated 200 migrants capsized off the Sicilian island of Lampedusa Friday, Oct.11, 2013. The capsizing occurred some 65 miles (105 kilometers) southeast of Lampedusa, but in waters where Malta has search and rescue responsibilities. Last week, a migrant boat carrying some 500 Eritreans capsized off Lampedusa, killing at least 339. Only 155 people survived. (AP Photo/Maltese Army HO) (credit:AP)
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Open Image ModalMap locates shipwreck near Malta. (credit:AP)