More Than 6,000 Migrants Rescued Off Libyan Coast

MEP: More than 6,500 migrants and refugees were rescued off the coast of Libya on in the southern Mediterranean Sea over the past three years.

“The command center coordinated 40 rescue operations” on Monday, saving 6,500 refugees, the coastguard said on Twitter on the same day.

“We’ve been particularly busy today,” a spokesman for the Italian coastguard said.

Video footage shows migrants, said to be from Eritrea and Somalia, cheering and some swimming to rescue vessels, while others carried babies aboard.

During the commotion of the rescue, some leapt into the water to reach safety.

The so-called central Mediterranean route—leaving from northern Libya and arriving in Italy or the nearby island of Lampedusa—has remained under intense pressure and is used largely by sub-Saharan Africans, including Nigerians and Eritreans, seeking economic opportunities or fleeing situations of war or authoritarian governments.

Frontex has recorded more than 70,000 illegal border crossings on the route in the first six months of 2016.

The number of the people rescued on Monday is one of the biggest in the recent past, when countless individuals have been embarking on dangerous journeys to reach Europe in the hope of a better life.

Last year more than one million migrants – many fleeing the civil war in Syria – arrived in Europe, sparking a crisis as countries struggled to cope with the influx, and creating division in the EU over how best to deal with resettling people.