This is a timeline of the European migrant crisis of 2015 and 2016. 2014 11 September: 2014 Malta migrant shipwreck A migrant boat with more than 500 people on board sank near Malta; nine survivors were rescued. 15 September: 2014 Libya migrant shipwreck A migrant boat with up to 250 people on board sank near the coast of Libya; 36 people were rescued. 2015 January 2015 2 January: A ship, the Ezadeen, was rescued off the coast of Italy with 360 Syrian migrants on board. The crew, believed to be people smugglers, abandoned the ship and it had been drifting in the Mediterranean for weeks. February 2015 9 February: At least 300 migrants are believed to have drowned after four inflatable boats sank off the coast of Libya. March 2015 3 March: Ten migrants drowned when their boat capsized off the coast of Libya. Italian coastguard ships rescued almost 1,000 others over a 24-hour period. April 2015 12 April: A boat with up to 550 migrants on board capsized off the coast of Libya. About 400 people are believed to have drowned while about 150 were rescued by the Italian coastguard. 16 April: About 40 migrants drowned when a boat sank off the coast of Libya. Meanwhile, twelve Christian migrants drowned after Muslim migrants threw them overboard following a row on another migrant boat. There were about 150 migrants on board, heading from Libya to Italy. Italian police arrested fifteen Muslim migrants and charged them with "multiple aggravated murder motivated by religious hate". 18 April: A boat with up to 700 migrants on board capsized in Libyan waters south of the Italian island of Lampedusa. At least 650 migrants are believed to have drowned while 28 were rescued by the Italian coastguard. It was the highest death toll from a shipwreck during the migrant crisis. The ship was later displayed at the 2019 Venice Biennale as Barca Nostra. 22 April: Fourteen migrants were killed when they were hit by a train near Veles, Macedonia. A large group of Somali and Afghan migrants making their way to western Europe were walking along the track. 23 April: The European Council held an emergency meeting to discuss the migrant crisis. It agreed to triple funding for rescue operations aimed at migrant boats, and several EU member states promised more ships and other resources. It also agreed to look at ways to capture and