Antonio Denti
Reuters
PALERMO: As many as 700 people are feared dead after a fishing boat packed with migrants capsized off the Libyan coast, in what officials said may be the Mediterranean’s worst disaster as thousands flee poverty and war.
Top officials in Europe, whose recently downsized border protection programme has been criticised by international aid groups, said urgent action was needed.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said foreign ministers would discuss the issue at a meeting in Luxembourg today.
If confirmed, the death toll would bring to 1 500 the total number of dead since the beginning of the year resulting from the flow of migrants seeking to flee insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.
Only last week, around 400 migrants were reported to have died attempting to reach Italy from Libya when their boat capsized.
Yesterday, 28 people were rescued and 24 bodies recovered from the 20m vessel, which sank around 120km from the Libyan coast, off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, overnight on Saturday, the Italian coastguard said.
The UN High Commission for Refugees said later that around 50 people had been rescued from the 700 reported to be on board.
“They are literally trying to find people alive among the dead floating in the water,” Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said.
French President Francois Hollande said the EU had to do more, telling Canal+ television that rescue-and-disaster prevention efforts needed “more boats, more overflights and a much more intense battle against people trafficking”.
“More EU countries must take responsibility for the refugee situation,” said Swedish Minister for Justice and Migration Morgan Johansson, who called for an expansion of the EU’s Triton border protection programme, which operates only within 50km off the Italian coast. The previous search-and-rescue operation, Mare Nostrum, was cancelled last year because of the cost.
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi called for an emergency meeting of EU leaders this week.
“We cannot remain insensitive when every day there is a massacre in the Mediterranean,” he said.
The German government’s representative for migration, refugees and integration, Aydan Ozoguz, said that with more arrivals likely to arrive as the weather turned warmer, emergency rescue missions should be restored.
“It was an illusion to think that cutting off Mare Nostrum would prevent people from attempting this dangerous voyage across the Mediterranean,” she said.