Dying for Europe

“This disaster confirms how urgent it is to restore a robust rescue-at-sea operation and establish credible legal avenues to reach Europe,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres confirmed in a press release issued on 19 April 2015.

“Otherwise people seeking safety will continue to perish at sea.”

Risking their lives to reach Europe from North Africa, a boatload of people, some of them likely in need of international protection, are rescued in the Mediterranean Sea by the Italian Navy. Photo: UNHCR/A. D’Amato

According to initial accounts, the boat overturned shortly before midnight on 18 April in Libyan waters and some 180 kilometres south of the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Italian and Maltese naval vessels and merchant ships are reportedly in the area and currently involved in the ongoing rescue operation. Nonetheless, only around 50 of the 700 migrants reported to be aboard the capsized boat have so far been rescued.

The incident – which occurred overnight – will be the largest loss of life from any incident involving refugees and migrants on the Mediterranean Sea and comes just days after a similar maritime tragedy took another 400 lives.

The UN refugee agency has long been advocating for a comprehensive and urgent response from the European Union and shared specific proposals including the establishment of a possible scheme to compensate shipping companies involved in rescuing people at sea, increasing credible legal alternatives to dangerous voyages and a pilot relocation programme for Syrians refugees arriving in Italy and Greece.

At the same time, Guterres said today’s tragedy also pointed to the need for a comprehensive European approach to address the root causes that drive so many people to such a tragic end.

“I hope the EU will rise to the occasion, fully assuming a decisive role to prevent future such tragedies,” he added.

2015 has already seen some 31,500 people make crossings to Italy and Greece – the first and second largest countries of arrival respectively. UNHCR has reported that numbers have also been recently picking up as weather conditions in the Mediterranean improve.

If today’s death toll is confirmed, some 1600 people would have died already this year attempting to cross the Mediterranean into Europe. (*Source: UN).

Read also:

The Death Sea

Some 300 Feared Dead in Fresh Mediterranean Tragedy

‘Turning Blind Eye Not a Solution’ to Mediterranean Migrant Crisis – UN Rights Expert