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Five vessels taking part in Frontex operation Triton helped save 2 700 people in the Central Mediterranean since Sunday. These vessels included Swedish KBV 002, Spanish Rio Segura and Maltese P62, as well as two Italian vessels co-financed by Frontex.

In total, some 10 000 migrants have been rescued in Central Mediterranean in the past three days and search and rescue operations are ongoing. This is the largest number of people rescued within such a brief span so far this year.

“Setting off such high numbers of boats at the same time by the Libyan smugglers is extremely worrying.  In the latest years smugglers often launched massive number of boats all at the same time, but this year we are witnessing levels never registered before in short periods of time,” said Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri.

Over the past two years, smugglers operating in Libya have made it more dangerous for migrants, cramming more people onto increasingly unseaworthy rubber dinghies. They also give them barely enough water and fuel to leave Libyan territorial waters and remove the engines as they approach international waters to reuse them.

“While saving lives is a priority, dismantling people-smuggling networks operating in Libya is part of our mission. Within Operation Triton, Frontex deploys officers who collect intelligence about the activities of the smugglers which the agency shares with Italian authorities and Europol for investigations and arrests,” said Fabrice Leggeri.

In 2016, 588 suspected smugglers were arrested as part of operation Triton.