The Mediterranean has become a burial ground for African immigrants as the refugee deaths increase 17 times as many as last year. European leaders have said that as many as 900 migrants have died off the Libyan coast.

This has prompted new regulations for the immigrants moving across the Mediterranean from Africa and the Middle East. European leaders are promising to triple their spending on border protection and approved plans to make more efforts to find the smugglers’ boats before they set sail. This new border protection includes two aircraft, two helicopters, six coastal patrol boats and about 65 officers.

The immigrants are refugees fleeing poverty, persecution, and war. These refugees are coming out of Libya where violence and political turmoil is overshadowing the increasing rate of smuggling. The migrants are coming from the larger area of Bangladesh and Afghanistan (Asia), Syria and Iraq (Middle East), and Gambia, Somalia, Mali, and Eritrea (Africa).

In Italy, officials are asking for a nonmilitary invention of the human traffickers. Italy and Greece are the places that these immigrants are arriving in. New York statistics from 2014 say more than 170,000 refugees arrived in Italy. Germany, Sweden, and Hungary are the countries that migrants want to seek asylum (moving to a different country because you are persecuted you’re your own country) in because they’re the most open to immigrants.

These immigrants are getting on smuggling boats which are not the safest and are prone to sinking and killing those on board. According to the New York Times, “This year’s death toll in the Mediterranean Sea is thought to have already surpassed 1,500 victims…” This is due to the rise in number of migrants who are coming across the Mediterranean. More than 11,000 migrants were rescued from the waters during the first 17 days of April alone.

According to Flavio DiGiacomo, the head of Communications in the International Organization for Migration, “Vessels are frequently overcrowded and often unseaworthy. For refugees, once the fare is paid, there is no turning back.” Apparently the human traffickers discriminate against their clients too. For an African migrant, the cost is $400 to $700 while Syrian migrants must pay $1,500 per person.

Not only are the smugglers discriminatory but they are abusive and cruel. Survivors of another sunken boat said that people were beaten and abused on land and on the sea. One survivor described a scene on the boat when a boy stood without permission and the smugglers killed and tossed his body overboard.

Officials believe that as the weather continues to improve the refugees will continue to cross. Humanitarian organizations are worried that cuts in this year’s financing for Mediterranean Sea patrol programs will leave rescue missions lacking in strength and people.

In the meantime the Italian and Greek Coast Guards have been left to do most of the saving. Italy has been asking the rest of the countries of Europe to do more to help. The Greek news media has posted videos of people flailing and drowning in the water as Greek Coast Guard members pulled them onto a nearby rock.

One survivor of a sunken ship described the ship as having three tiers packed full of migrants form Tunisia, Nigeria, Egypt, Somalia, Zambia, and Bangladesh. He estimated that about 250 women and 50 children were on board and 950 total. This vessel sunk into deep water and has not yet been located. The survivor said “A few hundred people were forced to enter the hold, the lowest level, and locked up so that they would not climb up.”

This particular ship is thought to have begun its journey in Egypt and then made several stops along the African coastline and then turning to Italy. Officials are investigating why this vessel sank due to weird reports of all the migrants rushing to one side.

It is hard to tell on each vessel that sinks how many people were on it. The New York Times says that even though the danger is rising and more deaths are being reported, migrants still seem determined to reach Europe.

One migrant from Nigeria (who is still in Nigeria), who gave his name as Pious said he was saving up about $950 to pay a smuggler, told the New York Times, “I have been hearing the stories that people are dying, but me, I will cross it and I will cross it successfully.”