article_snippet.sent: Britain argues that search and rescue operations in international waters are "an unintended 'pull factor,' encouraging more migrants to attempt the dangerous sea crossing and thereby leading to more tragic and unnecessary deaths.
article_snippet.sent: People from Syria, Mali and Eritrea are among the tens of thousands trying to escape repression, violence and abject poverty.
article_snippet.sent: Despite the danger, the great majority head first for Libya, where the collapse of authority allows smuggling operations to go unhindered.
article_snippet.sent: In 2014, 170,000 migrants arrived in Italy by sea.
article_snippet.sent: Italian ships have picked up about 11,000 migrants in the past week alone.
article_snippet.sent: According to some human rights groups, the danger to migrants on the high seas has been accentuated by merchant ships turning a blind eye to boats in distress -- despite a maritime obligation to come to the aid of vessels in peril.
article_snippet.sent: Further east, thousands of migrants are trying to reach Greece by land and sea.
article_snippet.sent: According to the UN's refugee agency, 219,000 refugees and migrants crossed the Mediterranean last year.
article_snippet.sent: We must target the traffickers who are responsible for so many people dying at sea and prevent so many people innocent victims from being tricked or forced into making these perilous journeys," said British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond Sunday.
article_snippet.sent: But the hundreds of migrants being herded onto barely seaworthy boats from Libyan beaches will be oblivious to the debate.
article_snippet.sent: Migrant deaths at sea -
article_snippet.sent: : Why migrants are risking migrants lives to reach ItalyREAD MORE: 'I enter Europe or
article_snippet.sent: I die' - desperate migrants
article_snippet.sent: How do illegal immigrants get into Europe?