In Italy, they're not called "boat people" but simply migranti - or migrants. And around 400 of them a day, risk their lives in search of a better life in Europe.
The Italian search and rescue operation, Mare Nostrum (Latin for “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 (9 million euro) a month, and with Italy facing a worsening economic crisis, the program has been deemed unsustainable.
The European Union's border agency will launch a new operation - Triton – on November 1, but it will only operate within 40 miles off the Italian and Maltese coasts. The Mare Nostrum program ventured into international waters in order to rescue people, and the lead Admiral behind the program has urged the EU to do so too.
"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.”
"If [the rescue operation is] 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,” Italy's Admiral Filippo Foffi told the BBC.
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 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.”
“The British government seems oblivious to the fact that the world is in the grip of the greatest refugee crisis since the Second World War.”
The so-called "pull-factor" argument has also been canvassed by some Italian MPs, who argue Italy's Mare Nostrum program has acted as a “ferry service” for migrants.
Despite the best efforts of Italian rescuers, around 3,000 people have drowned or gone missing in the Mediterranean this year alone.
More than half were fleeing war and persecution in Libya and Eritrea.
But refugee advocates have reacted with anger to the British government’s refusal to take part in future search operations in the Mediterranean.
“The British government seems oblivious to the fact that the world is in the grip of the greatest refugee crisis since the Second World War,” Maurice Wren, chief executive of British Refugee Council said in a statement.
“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. The only outcome of withdrawing help will be to witness more people needlessly and shamefully dying on Europe’s doorstep.
“The answer isn’t to build the walls of fortress Europe higher, it’s to provide more safe and legal channels for people to access protection.”
