Europe shaken as more migrants die in boat sinkings.
Europe struggling with response to hordes from Libya
MILAN — Shaken by the feared drowning of as many as 900 people in the latest Mediterranean tragedy, European leaders struggled Monday for an adequate response in the face of unremitting migrant flows and continued instability in Libya that has given free rein to human traffickers.
Even as the search continued for victims of the weekend disaster, coast guard ships rushed to respond to new distress calls on the high seas — two off Libya and a third boat that ran aground near Greece.
Decrying what he called an “escalation in these death voyages,” Italian Premier Matteo Renzi urged Europe to put the focus on preventing more boats from leaving Libya, the source of 90 percent of migrant traffic to Italy.
“We are facing an organized criminal activity that is making lots of money, but above all ruining many lives,” Renzi said at a joint news conference with Malta’s prime minister, Joseph Muscat. He compared their activity to that of slave traders of centuries past, ‘’ unscrupulous men who traded human lives.”
The European Union foreign affairs chief, Federica Mogherini, said this weekend’s appalling human toll — which, if verified, would be the deadliest migrant tragedy ever — had ‘’ finally” fully awakened the European Union to the evils of human trafficking.
The EU has been under increasing criticism for lagging in its response to the crisis, with two shipwrecks believed to have taken the lives of as many as 1,300 migrants in the past week. Some 400 people are believed to have drowned in another on April 13.
Stopping the traffickers will be a key item on the agenda when EU leaders meet in an emergency summit Thursday in Brussels, along with a proposal to double spending on sea patrols off Europe’s southern border. The 10- point plan includes a proposal to take “civil- military” action modeled on Europe’s anti- piracy operation off the coast of Somalia, to capture and destroy boats used by traffickers.
Meanwhile, details emerged about the weekend disaster, with Italian prosecutors saying hundreds of migrants were locked below deck unable to escape when the rickety boat capsized off the coast of Libya.
Speaking at a news conference in Catania, Sicily, prosecutor Giovanni Salvi said “a few hundred were forced into the hold and they were locked in and prevented from coming out.”
Renzi said that recent events had proved that providing rescue wasn’t always possible, given the conditions of the smugglers’ boats and the delicacy of such operations, and that the focus needs to be on preventing the boats from leaving Libya. “Continuing to think that allowing them to depart and then chasing after them means putting at risk human lives,” he said.
Even as European leaders grappled with how to respond to the crisis, more unseaworthy boats were setting off Monday on the perilous journey. Renzi said Italian ships were rushing to respond to distress calls from an inflatable life raft near the Libyan coast with 100 to 150 migrants on board and to another boat carrying about 300.
The International Organization for Migration earlier said its Rome office had received a distress call from three boats in need of help. The group says the caller reported 300 people on his sinking boat, with about 20 fatalities.