After a record number of migrants have reached Italy by boat from North Africa in 2016, according to official data, as pressure on Italy's shelter and asylum systems grows ahead of the constitutional referendum on Dec. 4. Renzi has attacked the European Commission several times, saying it is run by bureaucrats, and he has asked for funds and support in dealing with an increasing flow of migrants arriving in the country from the Mediterranean. Together with Greece, Italy has borne the brunt of new arrivals since the implementation in March of a fragile agreement between the European Union and Turkey to curb the flow of migrants sailing for Greece. During the more stormy winter months, arrivals in the past have dropped, but rescuers are concerned this year that there will not be enough vessels to go to their aid. A sharp temperature drop in Greece raised concern that thousands of migrants exposed to the cold may flee their inadequate shelters and seek new protection in city streets, local media reported Tuesday. "[Migrants] could run to the center of Thessaloniki to avoid freezing," Giannis Boutaris, the mayor of Greece's second-largest city and the main northern Aegean port, said Monday night. The weather turned rapidly over the previous two days, as temperatures dropped from positive 20 degrees celsius to below freezing in the north. The south, including Athens, saw single-digit temperatures. As of Nov. 28, 171,299 boat migrants had reached Italy's shores, the Interior Ministry said, compared to the previous record of 170,100 for all of 2014. There is no sign of a let-up in people crossing. Some 1,400 more migrants were rescued from rubber and wooden boats attempting to cross the central Mediterranean during Monday, Italy's coast guard said. In the past three years, Italy has recorded nearly half a million migrant arrivals. Many have fled war, poverty or political oppression. The influx has brought a record number of asylum requests this year in Italy where more than 176,000 asylum seekers now live in shelters. This is putting the country's asylum process and legal system under increasing pressure. While there had been hope that a government formed in Tripoli in March would help stop people smuggling, it has not. Libya remains fertile ground for traffickers as local militias and a rival government in Tobruk competes for power. Most of the migrants who have come to Italy this year are Africans of various nationalities. Some 36,000 Nigerians have made the trip, about 21 percent of the total, along with 20,000 Eritreans and more than 12,000 from Guinea. An estimated 4,663 migrants have died in the Mediterranean this year as a record number of unaccompanied minors have come to Italy. As of the end of October, almost 23,000 unaccompanied minors -- mostly teenage boys -- had arrived, compared with 13,000 during the whole of 2014. More than 62,000 refugees and migrants have been stranded in Greece for months. Around 17,000 are in reception centers on Aegean islands with the rest on the mainland. Most live in miserable conditions in overcrowded facilities and many live in tents outside heated areas. Greece was the European gateway for more than 1 million refugees, mostly Syrians, en route to Germany and other wealthy European Union countries.