( CNN ) -- EU border patrol missions are scouring the Italian shore in search of yet another missing vessel carrying North Africans attempting to reach Europe , a Maltese commander told CNN Thursday . Many immigrants from Africa attempt to make the perilous journey across the Mediterranean in overcrowded boats . On Friday , a French patrol frigate operating under Frontex , a EU border patrol mission , alerted Italian officials of new incoming vessels after sighting six corpses floating in the Mediterranean . Maltese army officials were unable to recover the corpses because of poor weather conditions . `` Unrelated to these corpses cited , last Friday , we monitored a fiberglass boat that originated from North Africa carrying about 30 to 35 people on board , '' said Major Ivan Consiglio from Valletta , the Maltese capital . `` Its fate is uncertain , '' he said . `` We have lost track of this boat . '' Malta is a hub for immigrants from Africa trying to reach Europe . Approximately 20,000 would-be immigrants have been apprehended on European shores just this year alone , according to Frontex figures . But many do not survive the trek . `` These waters are like the American Wild West , '' Consiglio said . `` So many boats try to cross with families and children and some never make it . '' Humanitarian groups such the Dutch-based UNITED against Racism , which keeps records on immigration , say thousands of Africans have died trying to cross the Mediterranean and the Adriatic . The trek between Sicily and Tunisia has been dubbed `` a floating cemetery for African immigrants . '' In August , 70 people died off the cost of Malta attempting to cross the Mediterranean . On Wednesday , about 300 would-be immigrants were rescued during a storm in the Italian island of Lampedusa . Consiglio said that a growing number of would-be immigrants are braving the waters of the Atlantic in overcrowded dingy boats -- a dangerous mission this time of the year . `` It 's fall here , waters are choppy and covered with fog , '' he said . `` Trips are becoming even riskier and these locally-manufactured fiberglass boats do n't have the same rigidity . ''
This year around 20,000 migrants have been apprehended on Africans shores . Consiglio is a hub for immigrants from Europe trying to reach Africa . Approximately 20,000 of Africans have died trying to cross Mediterranean and Adriatic .