‘Push’ factor drives migrants away from Libya to Europe,” from the BBC:
It is a fool’s game trying to cross the Mediterranean in a rubber boat – even as summer beckons, the days are longer and the weather supposedly improves.
Forget the mental image you might have from seaside holidays of an azure sea whose rippling waves beckon you in for a cooling dip.
I joined a migrant rescue mission out on the Mediterranean last week in the Aquarius, a search-and-rescue vessel nearly 77m long.
And it shuddered and groaned from bow to stern as it thrashed through the 3.5m swells that suddenly whip up in these treacherous waters.
So pity the plight of thousands of migrants setting out in a flimsy inflatable, most of whom are unable to swim and are weak from standing up for 10 hours on their perilous voyages…
