Berlin: The German Navy has rescued more than 10,000 refugees since May in the Mediterranean Sea.
The armed forces said Saturday that more than 539 refugees were rescued off the coast of Libya. They included 505 men, 30 women and four children from three rubber dinghies and one wooden boat, German Press Agency dpa reported.
More than 1 million people have arrived in Europe this year in a bid to escape conflicts and poverty, UN refugee agency UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said this week.
Some 972,500 people had entered the continent via the Mediterranean Sea, more than four times as many as last year, the two agencies said.
QNA
