It might seem incomprehensible that refugees continue to board these unsafe vessels.
The majority of asylum seekers are people from Iran, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka who set out in crowded, often unsafe vessels for Christmas Island, a remote territory in the Indian Ocean that is Australia's closest point to Indonesia.
Most of the thousands of people who seek asylum in Australia each year come from Iran, Afghanistan or Sri Lanka, find their way to Indonesia and then set out in crowded, often unsafe vessels to reach Christmas Island, a remote outpost in the Indian Ocean that is the closest Australian territory to Indonesia.
But unscrupulous traffickers and unsafe vessels often lead to many not surviving the journey.
The majority are fleeing war in Syria or Eritrea's repressive regime, in search of a better life, but due to unscrupulous traffickers and unsafe vessels, all too often don't make it to the island alive.
"The tragic backslide of this is that it has also increased trafficking intensity on the other side of the Mediterranean," she said, "Which means that people have been put in even more unsafe vessels and even smaller boats because of the likelihood of them being saved".
Thousands of asylum seekers fly into Indonesia every year, where they pay smugglers to ferry them in often unsafe, overcrowded vessels to Christmas Island, a remote Australian territory in the Indian Ocean that is its nearest point to Indonesia.
Every year, thousands of asylum seekers pay smugglers to ferry them in often unsafe, crowded vessels to Christmas Island, a remote territory in the Indian Ocean that is Australia's closest point to Indonesia.
Thomas de Maizière, the German interior minister and chancellor Angela Merkel's former chief of staff, also takes a hard line, arguing, like May, that more ambitious European search-and-rescue missions in the Mediterranean will act as a "pull factor", encouraging smugglers to send more migrants to sea in unsafe, packed vessels.
