Busiest migrant year yet for tireless coast guard

Maritime safety service says it has rescued 180,000 refugees from Mediterranean in 2016

It has been a record year for Italian coast guard, with nearly 180,000 people rescued in the Mediterranean, longer days than ever before and, despite their efforts, thousands of victims.

In a small room in a soulless ministry building in the south of Rome, red telephones ring and operatives juggle with maps on giant screens on the walls as they coordinate all rescue operations off Libya.