MIGRATIONS

Hundreds of migrants left the north coast of Libya earlier this week in a large wooden boat and several smaller rubber crafts, they made it just 12 miles offshore before rescuers rushed to find the boats crowded, some five times beyond their capacity. And among the crowds, 32 dead bodies.

Aris Messinis, a photographer for Agence France-Presse, was aboard the rescue boat. When he and rescuers from Proactiva Open Arms, a Spanish aid organization, came upon the scene, many of the migrants began to shout frantically. Some jumped into the water.

"We tried to calm them down. We tried to tie their boat and drag it closer to the area where the rescue operations were happening," says Messinis. "We were shouting, 'Don't jump, don't jump!' They were very panicked."

Both 2015 and 2016 have seen steep rises in migrations of refugees fleeing from unstable humanitarian and political conditions in Africa and the Middle East. Last year, more than a million refugees left ports in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and Turkey to travel by sea to seek refuge in Spain, Italy, and Greece.