Page 222 - A Helping Hand for Refugees

This human catastrophe is happening before the eyes of the world.
In 2014 alone 3,000 migrants have perished or gone missing trying to
reach Europe to have better living standards. The reason for the increase
in the number of casualties over the last two years is the decrease in
search and rescue operations by the European states; they believed the
demand of the asylum seekers to reach Europe would diminish that
way. In 2013, the Italian navy used to run rescue operations called Mare

Nostrum (Our Sea), which cost $10 million per month. Due to its expen-
sive cost, Europe started new rescue operations called Triton, which
amounts $3 million a month. 38

220 A Helping Hand for Refugees