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Harrowing Scenes From the Mediterranean as Migrants Risk Everything For a Chance at a Better Life (23 photos)

Hundreds of thousands of migrants from Africa and the Middle East continue to make their way to Europe, fleeing poverty, war, and chaos in their home countries. More than 3,000 are known to have died on the journey across the Mediterranean Sea this year alone. Thousands are now racing to make the dangerous crossing before summer ends, as European authorities and non-governmental organizations struggle to rescue and accommodate the influx. AFP photographer Aris Messinis recently spent time aboard rescue vehicles documenting just some of the thousands of desperate migrants plucked from smuggler’s boats left drifting in the Mediterranean over the past few days.