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Last year more than 5,000 migrants and asylum seekers drowned attempting to reach Europe from Turkey and North Africa.

In an ongoing wave of migration across the Mediterranean, 2016 was the worst year for fatalities so far, with smugglers filling increasingly unseaworthy vessels far beyond capacity.

More than 250 people have been reported dead or missing in the first weeks of 2017.

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Mediterranean countries and local NGOs have rescued tens of thousands from the sea in recent years. Well over one million people have risked their lives.

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Migrants flail in the water seeking rescue from Proactiva Open Arms NGO 12 miles from Libya on 4/10/2016.

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3-year-old Idris, from Mali, sleeps next to his mother Aicha Keita on the deck of a Spanish rescue ship 13/1/2017.

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Ushman, 19, from Guinea, in a heating blanket after being rescued by members of Proactive Open Arms NGO, about 24 miles north of Libya, 27/1/2017.

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Cyprus police rescued 123 migrants, believed to be Syrians, left adrift off the island's northwest coast by a boatman who made off on a jet ski 10/11/2016.

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Migrants and refugees panic as they fall in water during a rescue operation run by Maltese NGO Moas and Italian Red Cross 3/11/2016.

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Hundreds of thousands of people risk their lives on the Mediterranean each year, with thousands drowning in unseaworthy, overcrowded vessels.

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A pacifier lies next to the body of a baby on a beach in Canakkale on 1/30/ 2016 after at least 33 migrants drowned crossing to Greece from Turkey.

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A Turkish gendarme carries the body of a child on a beach in Canakkale on 30/1/2016.

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Tombstones are placed on graves of unidentified 85 refugees, mostly women and children, who drowned at sea in an attempt to cross from Turkey 4/4/2016.

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Locals from coastal areas have made grizzly discoveries of wreckages, lifejackets and bodies washed ashore.

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A child wrapped in a survival blanket looks on as migrants and refugees arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing from Turkey 2/3/2016, in Mytilene.

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Sub-saharan migrants on a rescue ship after being rescued from a rubber boat sailing out of control about 21 miles north of Libya, on Friday, 3/2/2017.

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Two days after being rescued, migrants catch sight of the Italian coast for the first time, Strait of Sicily, Mediterranean Sea, 23/8/2015.

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There are numerous migrant routes accross the Mediterranean from Egypt, Turkey, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco to Greece, Spain and Italy.

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Many of the boats are overcrowded, some are just inflatable rubber dinghies 27/1/2017.

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Women from Mali after being rescued about 20 miles north of Libya. Rescuers also retrieved several bodies from the water 13/1/2017.

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Spanish, Italian, Greek and Cypriot authorities work alongside NGOs to rescue as many migrants as possible, with thousands making the trip every week 14/1/2017.

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Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms assists migrants aboard a wooden boat sailing out of control off the coast of Libya 3/2/2017.

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A Syrian refugee child sleeps on his father's arms after arriving on a dinghy from the Turkish coast to the Lesbos, Greece Sunday, 4 /10/2015.

Originally posted here:
In photos: The ongoing Mediterranean migrant crisis - SBS