In Italy, they're not called "boat people" but simply migranti - or migrants.
And around 400 of them risk their lives in search of a better life in Europe - every day.
An Italian search and rescue program has saved many thousands of people at risk of drowning at sea but funding for the program is running out.
And the European Union is debating whether rescuing people at sea simply encourages more to make the perilous journey.
The Italian search and rescue operation - called Mare Nostrum, or Our Sea - has rescued an estimated 150,000 people from stricken boats in the Mediterranean in the past year.
But at a cost of around $11-million a month, and with Italy facing a worsening economic crisis, the program been deemed unsustainable.
The EU's border agency is launching a new operation called "Triton" - but it will only operate up to 40 miles off the Italian and Maltese coasts.
Italy's Admiral Filippo Foffi has told the BBC rescues must go further.
"If we will be only in territorial waters, we will control the borders but we will not see people in danger and if they die we will not know it."
Britain says it won't support the EU's search and rescue operation, arguing it will create an unintended "pull factor" encouraging more migrants to attempt the dangerous sea crossings.
Asked recently in the House of Lords what naval or air-sea rescue contribution the British government would make to the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean, Foreign Office minister Baroness Anelay replied:
"We do not support planned search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean. We believe that they create an unintended 'pull factor', encouraging more migrants to attempt the dangerous sea crossing and thereby leading to more tragic and unnecessary deaths. The Government believes the most effective way to prevent refugees and migrants attempting this dangerous crossing is to focus our attention on countries of origin and transit, as well as taking steps to fight the people-smugglers who wilfully put lives at risk by packing migrants into unseaworthy boats.'
But the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, Michael Diedring, says the British government's decision is reprehensible.
"The position of not supporting search and rescuers is deplorable because if people are in danger they need to be rescued. That needs to be the first priority."
The so-called "pull-factor" argument has also been canvassed by some Italian M-Ps, who say Italy's Mare Nostrum program has acted as a ferry service for migrants.
Despite the best efforts of Italian rescuers, around 3,000 people - men, women and children - have drowned or gone missing in the Mediterranean this year alone.
More than half wer fleeing war and persecution in Libya and Eritrea.
But refugee advocates say the boats won't stop coming just because people stop rescuing them.
Maurice Wren of the British Refugee Council says in a statement on the organisation's website:
"People fleeing atrocities will not stop coming if we stop throwing them life-rings; boarding a rickety boat in Libya will remain a seemingly rational decision if you're running for your life and your country is in flames,"
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