Rome ( CNN ) A destination for the destitute , Sicily is the `` promised land '' for thousands of migrants and refugees making the desperate journey from North Africa to Europe 's Mediterranean coast . More than 10,000 people have arrived from Libya since last weekend alone , according to the Italian Coast Guard . 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 . But what makes the current influx different is the increase in numbers and the absence of control from the ports of embarkation , specifically those in Libya , because when Moammar Gadhafi was in control , he also controlled the flow of migrant ships . In 2008 , the-then Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Gadhafi signed an historic friendship agreement in which Italy promised to invest $ 5 billion in Libyan infrastructure and Gadhafi promised to close what he described as a `` spigot '' of migrants . During a three-day state visit to Italy in August 2010 , he famously threatened to `` turn Europe black '' if Libya did not enjoy cordial relations with the European Union . After the agreement , Gadhafi kept his promise and the number of arrivals drastically decreased . For a time , almost all migrant arrivals came from Tunisia , just 70 miles from the Italian island of Lampedusa . Because Italy sent most of those migrants who did not qualify for political asylum back to Tunisia , the flow eventually tapered off . And once a new Tunisian government was in place , after the Arab Spring , Italy signed an accord with Tunisia in which they promised to help patrol Tunisia 's ports . But after Gadhafi was overthrown , the flow of migrants from Libya exploded again : the International Organization for Migration ( IOM ) in Rome told CNN that more than 140,000 migrants arrived from the North Africa coast in 2011 . In October 2013 , after a tragic boat accident off the coast of Lampedusa in which 349 people -- including an infant still attached to its mother by the umbilical cord -- died , trapped like sardines in their smugglers ' boat as it sank , Italy decided it had to act . In November of 2013 , the Italian Navy launched a €9M-a-month search-and-rescue program called Mare Nostrum , in which Italian naval ships patrolled the seas to rescue migrants . In just one year , the program rescued more than 160,000 migrants , according to the Italian Navy . Due to budget constraints and criticism from the European Union that the program itself was encouraging migrants to head across the Mediterranean , the mission ended in October 2014 . 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 . In November last year , the European Union 's border control , Frontex , started its own mission -- Triton -- with a budget of less than a third that of Mare Nostrum . Frontex has no vessels or surveillance equipment of its own , so has to rely on European member states to lend them ships ; a ship from Iceland , at the far north of the continent , is currently involved in Frontex 's operations off southern Europe . 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 . '' `` This is a mistake , and precisely the wrong reaction for an era in which record numbers of people are fleeing wars , '' Guterres told a UNHCR policy meeting . `` 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 . '' Once migrants arrive in Italy , they are supposed to be processed for political asylum and monitored until it is granted or denied , but Italy has been sanctioned by the European Union for not fingerprinting new arrivals . By law , Italy has to take care of the arrivals , but many have no intention of staying in the country , and few of the reception centers are gated , meaning migrants can come and go as they please . And with no physical border controls between Italy and other European countries , they can then disperse across the continent . Moutassem Yazbek , 27 , an IT specialist who worked for six years in Dubai , arrived in Sicily in December on board a smuggler 's boat . He told CNN he was never fingerprinted in Italy , and eventually made it to Germany where he is studying to learn the language and find work . He says the human trafficking network is a finely-oiled machine that fills a growing need . `` I would have done anything to get here , '' Yazbek said . `` It was worth the risk , the bad treatment and the fear . Hard as that may be to believe , it is a better life . ''
Tens of thousands of tourists and refugees make the perilous journey across the Mediterranean every year . Many make the journey in dangerous boats owned by people illegally ; thousands have died along the way in recent years .