European Migrant Crisis: The teenagers risking it all to cross the Med - BBC News

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Migrants saved in one of the first rescue operations in the Mediterranean since hundreds of people died when a boat sank off the Greek coast, say nothing could deter them from trying to reach Europe.

They spoke to the BBC's Alice Cuddy on board a rescue vessel patrolling the sea for migrant boats in distress.

One man says the disaster in June - in which the UN says up to 500 people may have drowned - didn't put him off because he believes those migrants would have had the same mindset as him.

"It's either you reach Europe or you die at sea," the teenager tells me. "There's only two options."

The migrants tell the BBC they were not ignorant to the risks they were facing and many say it was not their first attempt at reaching Europe.

"Seven times I have been trying," one 17-year-old says.