More than 6.000 refugees have been rescued on the central Mediterranean route from Libya to Italy in recent days, as more people make the long-distance voyage, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.
About 500 refugees are said to have drowned to date, as more than 20.000 people arrived in Europe, mostly in Italy, IOM spokesman Joel Millman told a news conference.
"March is not over yet and we are already doing a road race with a pace of arrivals that has surpassed anything we have seen before in the Mediterranean. This is a characteristic of spring, to acquire great activity "[the route]. "But it is not typical to have such high numbers from so early and the deaths that correspond to them," he said.
Source: news.in.gr