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Hundreds of migrant deaths at sea: What is Europe going to do?

(CNN)After a weekend shipwreck off the coast of Italy that may have killed hundreds of 
migrants, the International Organization for Migrants said Monday that there may be three 
more migrant boats in distress in international waters, according to a post on the group's 
official Twitter account.


Authorities still don't know the fate of many of the passengers, including children, who were 
on the large ship bound from Libya to Europe that capsized Saturday night in the frigid waters 
of the Mediterranean Sea. That sinking may be the worst in a series of disasters in which 
migrants have lost their lives on vessels that are too rickety to survive long voyages.


"Gangs of criminals are putting people on a boat, sometimes even at gunpoint," Maltese 
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said. "They're putting them on the road to death, really, and 
nothing else."


A rescue operation is still underway for people who were on the ship from Libya, and the 
number of potential victims is not clear. A Bangladeshi survivor told investigators there were 
950 people on board. Previous estimates put the number around 700.


Maltese authorities, who are working with Italian rescuers, said around 50 people had been 
saved. But the Italian Coast Guard said 28 people had been rescued and 24 bodies recovered.


Migrants have been attempting the perilous journey across the Mediterranean to southern 
Europe for years, but authorities have reported a sudden surge in the past 10 days, along with 
a grim spike in the number of those who are killed en route.


Already this year, more than 900 migrants are believed to have died while crossing the 
Mediterranean, far more than during the same period in 2014, the International Organization 
for Migration said last week.


Since the beginning of 2015, more than 35,000 refugees and migrants have crossed the 
Mediterranean Sea -- 23,500 have landed in Italy and more than 12,000 in Greece, according to 
the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights. While those numbers sound high, 
they were even higher the previous year. In 2014, approximately 219,000 refugees and 
migrants sailed across the Mediterranean, with most having to be rescued by the Italian 
Navy, Coast Guard or merchant ships, the UNCHR said. It is estimated that 3,500 people in 
2014 died at sea.


On Monday, yet another boat sank off the Greek island of Rhodes, killing at least three 
people, the Greek Merchant Marine Ministry said. Of the 83 people reported on board, at 
least 57 survived. Those confirmed dead were a man, a woman and a child.


Members of the European Union must be united and act quickly to respond to the crisis of 
migrants risking their lives to travel across the Mediterranean Sea in desperate and often 
fatal attempts to reach Europe, Federica Mogherini said Monday in Brussels, Belgium.


The EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy said the European Union 
must fight human traffickers, strengthen Europeans' duty to save lives at sea and share 
responsibility when it comes to the resettlement and relocation of refugees.


The latest disaster: 'Nothing less than a genocide'

The capsizing of the ship that departed from Libya marked the worst such disaster so far.


As rescuers approached the boat in response to a distress call Saturday night, authorities say, 
migrants moved to one side, hoping to be saved. Their movement caused the large, 
multilevel boat to capsize about 110 kilometers (70 miles) north of Libya, sending many 
passengers plunging into the sea.


A boat carrying hundreds of migrants capsizes

A boat carrying hundreds of migrants capsizes 01:27

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According to one Bangladeshi survivor, large numbers of people remained trapped inside the 
boat as it sank. Smugglers -- human traffickers organizing the voyages -- had locked the doors 
to the lower levels of the vessel, the survivor told Italian authorities.


"Our troops, together with the Italian navy, are literally looking through the bodies to try to 
find someone who's still alive," Muscat said.


While the shipwreck was an accident, Muscat slammed the human traffickers whom he 
accused of risking people's lives by putting them on rickety ships in unpredictable waters.


It's "genocide -- nothing less than genocide, really," Muscat told CNN.


The wider picture: 'A mass grave ... in the Mediterranean'

"A mass grave is being created in the Mediterranean Sea and European policies are 
responsible," said Loris De Filippi, the president of the international aid group Doctors 
Without Borders. He compared the high number of deaths to "figures from a war zone."


De Filippi called on European states to immediately launch large-scale search and rescue 
operations with proactive patrolling as close as possible to Libyan shores. "Faced with 
thousands of desperate people fleeing wars and crises, Europe has closed borders, forcing 
people in search of protection to risk their lives and die at sea," he said. "This tragedy is only 
just beginning, but it can and should be stopped."


Cause of the crisis: 'Get to Europe at all costs'

Many of the migrants who board ships to cross the Mediterranean come from sub-Saharan 
Africa, often traveling for weeks or months just to get to the ships. They're seeking a better 
life, but many are exploited by the ruthless smugglers who organize the voyages.


"There is a well-oiled machine with the human traffickers, first by land and then by sea, and 
they feel the need for these desperate people who just want to get to Europe at all costs," 
said Rome-based journalist Barbie Nadeau.


The situation on board the boat that sank over the weekend isn't unusual, based on accounts 
of previous voyages.


On old fishing boats, "people are crammed into what used to be the frozen live tank 
compartments in the bottom of the ship," Nadeau said. "Those are the cheaper tickets. 
People that want to be out on the upper deck, which is the prime space, pay a little more for 
that service."


Traffickers are believed to charge anywhere from 6,000 euros to 8,000 euros ($6,450 to $8,600) 
per person for the dangerous voyage, she said.


Italy's response: 'Not even enough space in ... cemeteries'

Italy's proximity to the North African coast puts it on the front line of tackling the continent's 
migration crisis.


Italian PM: We will do whatever it takes 

Italian PM: We will do whatever it takes 01:43



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"We're swamped," Sandro Gozi, the Italian minister for European affairs, told French daily Le 
Monde. "There's not even enough space in Sicily's cemeteries to bury the dead."


An Italian search and rescue program, Mare Nostrum, was credited with rescuing more than 
160,000 migrants in the space of a year. But it ended in October because of budget constraints 
and criticism from the European Union that the program itself was encouraging migrants to 
head across the Mediterranean.


The European Union's border control agency, Frontex, started its own mission in November, 
known as Triton, with a budget of less than a third of that of Mare Nostrum. Frontex has no 
vessels or surveillance equipment of its own, so has to rely on European member states to 
lend it ships.


Europe's response: 'A total absence' of policy

As anti-immigrant parties thrive across the continent, European nations are collectively 
struggling to cope with the migration crisis on their doorstep.


"We can't act as if each tragedy is the last while crossing our fingers that another one doesn't 
happen," Gozi told Le Monde, lamenting "a total absence" of European Union policy on how 
to deal with refugees arriving in Europe.



The European Commission, the executive branch of the EU, said Sunday it was consulting 
member states, European agencies and international organizations to prepare what it called a 
European Migration Strategy to be adopted in mid-May.


"These are human lives at stake, and the European Union as a whole has a moral and 
humanitarian obligation to act," it said.


But international groups say European governments are failing to do enough.


Doctors Without Borders will begin its own rescue effort, De Filippi said, because "as a 
medical, humanitarian organization, we simply cannot wait any longer."


Root of the crisis: 'The desperation subsists'

European officials say the roots of the crisis are beyond their control.


"As long as countries of origin and transit do not take action to prevent these desperate trips, 
people will continue to put their lives at risk," the European Commission said.


Many of the boats operated by human traffickers set out for Europe from Libya, which has 
been engulfed by violence and disorder since the fall of former dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 
2011. After he was overthrown, the flow of migrants from Libya intensified dramatically.


Muscat, the Maltese Prime Minister, called for action against the human traffickers operating 
out of Libya. Security for Libya's borders is essential to "take out these criminal gangs -- these 
terrorists," he said.


Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said the focus needs to be on eradicating human 
trafficking and that the responsibility lies with the whole world, "not just Italy and Malta."


But talk of ridding the world of human traffickers doesn't address the immediate issue of the 
vast numbers of migrants willing to risk their lives in the hope of a brighter future in Europe.


"The people are going to continue to arrive," said Roberta Metsola, a Maltese member of the 
European Parliament. "The desperation subsists -- there are almost a million people waiting 
to board boats and come to Europe to seek a better life. And that fact has to be recognized."


CNN's Hada Messia, Josh Levs and Catherine E. Shoichet and Khushbu Shah contributed to this 
report.


Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/04/20/africa/italy-migrant-boat-capsizes/