A five-day-old newborn peers out from a pink blanket. His dark, almond-shaped eyes stare directly at the camera, his tiny hand tucked underneath his chin.
His short life has been anything but easy.
He, his twin brother and his mother were among the 6,500 refugees and migrants rescued over 30 hours while attempting to make the treacherous journey across the Mediterranean.
Medecins Sans Frontieres’ ship Dignity 1 and the Spanish humanitarian group Proactiva Open Arms rescued people aboard 15 rubber boats and one wooden boat Monday.
MSF found the twins and their mother aboard one of the boats. The three of them were transferred via Medevac for treatment in Italy, according to a tweet from MSF.
On the same day, MSF, Proactiva Open Arms and crews from the Italian Coast Guard rescued more than 3,000 migrants off the coast of Libya. Most of the rescues took place off the coast of Libya and one was in Maltese waters.
Forty different organizations — including EU’s Marine mission “Sophia” which fights smugglers and Frontex, the European Agency tasked with border security — rescued more than 6,500 migrants in a single day, according to the Italian Coast Guard.
The rescued migrants are being taken to Italian ports in Calabria and Sicily.
The number of people plucked from sea on Monday was much higher than the average.
For comparison, the route was used by 2,197 migrants in the week that started August 14, according to the International Organization for Migration. Monday’s rate nearly tripled that weekly amount.
Migrants flee conflict and violence
Most of the migrants rescued this week came from sub-Saharan Africa. Many of the migrants using the central Mediterranean route, which is from Libya or other north African countries to Italy, are from Nigeria, Eritrea and Gambia according to the IOM.
The main departure route for refugees from Africa has been Libya, according to the IOM, as migrants take advantage of the country’s ongoing political chaos to escape over their mostly open borders. Libya’s crisis has helped boost a lucrative smuggling business as African migrants who reach southern Libya are transported through the desert to northern beaches where they board boats bound for Europe.
This year, 264,513 people arrived to Europe by sea, landing mostly in Greece and Italy, according to IOM estimates released in mid-August.
Of those who climbed into boats, 3,165 people have died at sea.
Migrants have boarded plastic rafts that deflate and overcrowded wooden fishing boats that have overturned and tossed people overboard.
Most of the deaths in 2016 came from people risking this particular route, which is considered dramatically more dangerous. Vessels tend to be more crowded, often carrying 600 or more passengers, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency.
Many are fleeing conflict in Syria, Afghanistan and elsewhere, while others are escaping poverty or repression in Africa. Millions of migrants have been driven toward Europe via the Mediterranean.
But as migrant boats and rafts cross the Mediterranean Sea, gateways into Europe are narrowing and many are growing wary.