article_snippet.sent: Stories of death at sea and unimaginable suffering are nothing new in the waters between North Africa and Italy; boat people have been arriving on Italy's islands for more than a decade.
article_snippet.sent: In October 2013, after a tragic boat accident off the coast of Lampedusa in which 349 people -- including an infant still attached to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Rome mother by the umbilical cord -- died, trapped like sardines in their smugglers' boat as it sank, Italy decided it had to act.
article_snippet.sent: By the end of the year, more than 174,000 people had been rescued in Italy; an estimated 3,072 people died making the journey, according to the IOM.
article_snippet.sent: When Italy ended Mare Nostrum, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres warned that some European governments were making "keeping foreigners out a higher priority than upholding asylum standards.
article_snippet.sent: This is a mistake, and precisely the wrong reaction for an era in which record numbers of people are fleeing wars," Antonio Guterres told a UNHCR policy meeting.
article_snippet.sent: Security and immigration management are concerns for any country, but policies must be designed in a way that human lives do not end up becoming collateral damage.
highlights_snippet.sent: Tens of thousands of migrants and refugees risk the perilous journey across the Mediterranean every year .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: Many make the trip in dangerous boats owned by people smugglers; thousands have died along the way in recent years .