Dozens of migrants freeze to death crossing Med

The migrants died of hypothermia while attempting to make a dangerous journey from North Africa to European shores in an inflatable boat.

Coast guard ships picked up more than 100 refugees on the small vessel near Libya overnight. Seven passengers were already dead.

"The smugglers, in their wickedness, threw them in a life raft in the middle of the sea," said Filippo Marini, a coast guard spokesman.

"It is obvious they were traveling in physically stressful conditions. We are in the middle of winter, with conditions at the limit for everyone."

Due to bad weather and high waves, the coast guard reached the Italian island of Lampedusa early afternoon on Monday. By then, 22 more people had died after spending 18 hours on small rescue vessels buffeted by wind and sea spray.

No shelter from the elements

In 2013, more than 360 people drowned trying to reach Europe via Lampedusa, a tragedy which initiated the Italian-run search-and-rescue mission, Mare Nostrum. However, the government of Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi brought the mission to end last year, as it had been costing Italy more than 9 million euros ($10 million) per month.

The project has since been replaced by much smaller program, called Triton.

Lampedusa Mayor Giusi Nicolini blamed Monday's tragedy on the closure of the Mare Nostrum program. Since it came to an end in November, no navy ships with the capacity to shelter large numbers of people below deck have patrolled the seas off the Libyan coast.

"The small patrol boats were completely swallowed by the waves during the trip back. If Mare Nostrum were still going, the migrants would have been given shelter inside a large ship within an hour," Nicolini said.

"To organized crime it's not important if people make it across the sea alive or dead," she added. "But now, without Mare Nostrum, it's as if no one, and not just the criminals, cares if they live or die."

Thousands dead at sea

Laura Boldrini, the president of Italy's lower house of parliament and a former spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency, shared the mayor's view.

"Horror off of Lampedusa. These people didn't die in a shipwreck, but from cold. These are the consequences of the end of Mare Nostrum," she wrote on Twitter.

More than 3,200 have died in the last year while trying to cross the Mediterranean and reach Italian shores. At the same time, more than 170,000 made it to their destination, making 2014 a record year.

dj/cmk (AP, AFP, Reuters)