Migrants are seen at the stern of the former fishing trawler Golfo Azzurro of the Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms, a day after they were rescued along with other migrants near the coasts of Libya, in the central Mediterranean Sea, January 28, 2017.
The refugees tried to cross the Mediterranean aboard inflatable rafts and wooden boats, the news agency specified.
Europe is currently experiencing a dire migration crisis, and struggles to accommodate hundreds of thousands of migrants attempting to enter wealthy EU member states through various routes, including via Turkey, Italy and Greece.
According to the latest data of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a total of 33,054 migrants and refugees arrived in Europe in 2017 alone, with the EU border agency Frontex stating that a total of 503,700 people crossed the EU border in 2016, compared to over 1.83 million illegal border crossings in 2015.
/Sputnik/
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