Thousands of Refugees Rescued on Mediterranean Sea

— -- In the last two days, almost 6,000 people have been rescued from boats on the Mediterranean Sea, according to the Italian Coast Guard.

Recently a rescue boat launched from the MOAS Phoenix, a US-operated independent rescue ship, to assist refugees aboard a boat. Hundreds of nervous eyes and necks craned to look as the rescuers threw out life jackets.

"We're here to help you, OK?" said John Hamilton of the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) rescue ship. "You're all safe now."

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Then four additional boats, packed with hundreds of people appeared. It was far more than the MOAS crew and its partners from Doctors Without Borders could handle. Eventually, after the MOAS called for assistance, warships from Italy, Ireland and Germany arrived on the scene.

So far this year, the United Nations says that 90,000 have taken this journey from Africa and the Middle East in hopes of reaching European shores, because of conflict, terrorism, poverty and persecution. The UK navy said that hundreds of thousands more are expected to do the same -- and so many do not make it.

In April, a boat capsized heading from Libya to Europe in the Mediterranean Sea, in what officials said was possibly the deadliest refugee disaster. Survivors said that more than 900 people could be dead.

Refugees take a variety of routes and come from a number of different countries, including Eritrea, Niger, Syria, Iraq and Somalia.

They pack into airless, squalid holds below deck, crammed like cattle. Images show unfit living conditions -- bottles of urine everywhere and water seeping through the floor. But as Italy came into view for the refugees being helped by MOAS and others, the feelings surrounding their old lives seemed to end and be replaced with celebration for a new life to come.