Some 4,200 refugees have been rescued from the frigid waters of the Mediterranean Sea over the course of just five days, suggesting a record-setting surge in migrants, NBC News noted.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) warned that the situation off Italy's coastlines was "out of control." Many of those rescued from the seas are forced to sleep out in the open because there is not enough space, the international agency lamented.

"The distribution of food and clothes cannot be guaranteed, tens of people had to sleep outdoors, some of their clothes were still wet, they can't get the proper assistance or phone cards to call their relatives to tell them they are alive," said UNHCR spokesman Federico Fossi.

Myriad conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa are contributing to the onslaught of migrants, experts say. They include tensions between Israelis and Palestinians over Gaza; the volatile political situation in Egypt; increased activities of the ISIS terror group in Libya; and the civil war in Syria, where a number of rebel groups continue to challenge government forces loyal to dictator Bashar al-Assad.

And refugees leave their chaotic homelands in spite of the evident dangers of the trip, NBC News said.

"We were more than 400 people in one boat, and the boat broke down more than once but we had to come here," said Eikheir Abbas, 26, who fled from Sudan's war-torn Darfur region. "If we stayed in Darfur, we would have died. So we had no choice but risk our lives to get here."

Forty-seven-year-old Palestinian Em Jamal said the vessel he was traveling on suffered a fire.

"It was very dangerous," he explained. "(The boat) was rocking heavily, we were crying until they came to help us. But now we wish we died out at sea, because they don't help us properly here."

Jamal's complaints are echoed by UNHCR, which decried the overcrowding of the reception center on the Italian island of Lampedusa, which was partially shut down last year after footage emerged of naked migrants being sprayed for scabies in an open-air courtyard.

"The situation is quite critical," spokesman Fossi told the Guardian. "You can imagine the condition of the people arriving, most of them are in a state of shock, they haven't been eating or drinking for maybe a couple of days, and therefore ... it's urgent and important that they receive all the needed assistance."

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