In this November 30, 1977, file photo, Vietnamese refugee Nguyen Thi Yen, holds her sick child as she asks for help while sitting in a fishing boat carrying her and 48 other refugees as they arrive at Khlong Yai, a village 220 miles southeast of Bangkok, Thailand. The refugees were refused entry by Thai authorities and the boat was towed back to sea. Two recent shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea believed to have taken the lives of as many as 1,300 asylum seekers and migrants has highlighted the escalating flow of people fleeing persecution, war and economic difficulties in their homelands.