Refugee Crisis In Europe 2016: German Leader Attacked By Cake For Anti-Refugee Stance Amid Increased Mediterranean Crossings

A German official had cake shoved into her face Saturday at a party meeting, the Associated Press reported. The confection sneak attack was an apparent protest against her stance on refugees in the country.

The opposition leader doesn't think an unlimited number of refugees should be allowed into Germany. In an apparent response to that position, an activist hurled what appeared to be a chocolate and cream cake at Left Party parliamentary co-leader Sahra Wagenknecht in Magdeburg, Germany. The AP cited the Deutsche Presse Argentur news agency in its report.

A group calling itself the Anti-Fascist Initiative "Cake for Misanthropists" passed out flyers that referenced Wagenknecht's refugee stance as the motive for the attack.

The activist's protest comes at time when calls for helping refugees have increased. As the weather has improved, it has become the peak time for attempted crossings of the Mediterranean Sea by refugees, many coming from war-torn Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan. The International Organization for Migration estimated in its Friday briefing 194,611 migrants and refugees have entered Europe by sea this year. More than 1 million refugees reportedly entered Germany last year alone.

Many refugees die in their attempt to reach Europe, and activists have warned that European Union member states must do more to prevent deaths, Al Jazeera reported Saturday.

At least 65 people reportedly died attempting to cross Wednesday through Friday. They drowned as three separate boats capsized attempting to make it from the Libyan coast to Italy.

The Italian navy recovered 45 bodies Friday, just one day after they recovered 30 others from a shipwreck. On Friday alone, the Italian navy rescued 1,900 people from vessels in distress, the Guardian reported.

The uptick in incidents has caused concern among rights groups, which want the EU to do more. "The first thing to do is to ensure a robust search and rescue operation," Judith Sunderland, associate director for Europe at Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera. "We're still pretty much at the start of peak crossing season. In the months ahead, far more work has to be done to prevent these deaths. ... Policy response has not been up to the challenge, even though we do have to recognize the much greater efforts in the past two years."