ON THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA — As usual, it started with a call on a satellite phone from Italian rescue officials in Rome. According to UNHCR, an average of 14 people died in the Mediterranean every day in 2016, the highest number ever recorded. Over the long Easter weekend, at least 8,300 migrants were rescued at sea, according to a U.N. refugee agency official, Carlotta Sami, who tweeted Monday that “rescuers worked incessantly for three days.” With the Greek smuggling route largely closed off, the path of least resistance has drifted to Libya — a sprawling, lawless country with a huge coast and competing rebel and government factions. On that April day aboard the Golfo Azurro, rescuers found two jam-packed boats with 152 people — 66 in a rubber boat, 86 in a wooden boat — 56 nautical miles from the Libyan coast. Fede Gomez, an Argentine rescuer, told those on the inflatable boat in English to remain calm if they wanted to avoid a tragedy. [...] the closest point is Lampedusa, a tiny Italian island 160 nautical miles away, a boat journey that takes more than 32 hours in calm waters.
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