LAWLzoR

Italy is having some serious trouble accommodating all of the migrants that its seeing coming into its borders from places such as Libya, Mali, Nigeria, and other African countries. Italy is usually just the gate to Europe that migrants go through to reach other European nations such as Germany or France. If this sort of thing sounds familiar, it should. America is going through the same thing with immigrants coming from Mexico and other South/Latin American countries.

But unlike here, a tragedy happening about three or so weeks ago (the weekend of April 18th), about 850 migrants lost their lives while trying to get to Italy. That is the worst tragedy (by death toll) of immigrants being smuggled across the Mediterranean from North Africa to Italy to date. That is more than half of the deaths seen on the Titanic, and around 300 deaths short of the sinking of the Lusitania. While thousands didn't die, it's only 150 people short of 1,000.

This sort of thing isn't surprising amongst those who see the ships/rafts they sail on. On April 23rd, Italy's rescue officials saw the arrivals floating on two rubber dinghies, inflated by pressurized gas. Those inflatable dinghies should hold normally up to 15 people each. Instead, the officials saw a total of 115 African migrants aboard those dinghies. It could've ended badly if it weren't for them being spotted.

To read more, see the Washington Post article here.