“ADD STOPPING SMUGGLERS” TO EU AGENDA

Migrants, who were trying to reach Greece, are rescued by members of the Greek Coast guard and locals near the coast of the southeastern island of Rhodes (REUTERS)

Luxembourg, 2 Rajab 1436/21 April 2015 (MINA) – Calls by Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi for a more unified response from the European Union (EU) were echoed by France, Spain, Germany and Britain ahead of Monday’s EU meeting in Luxembourg, where foreign ministers scrambled to add stopping the smugglers to their agenda.

“Europe can do more and Europe must do more,” said Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, Al Jazeera quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

“It is a shame and a confession of failure how many countries run away from responsibility and how little money we provide for rescue missions.”

Europe must mobilise “more ships, more overflights by aircraft”, French President Francois Hollande told French TV on Sunday. “Words won’t do anymore,” Spain’s prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, told a political rally.

Meanwhile, Renzi rejected calls by some Italian legislators for a naval blockade. That would only “wind up helping the smugglers” since military ships would be there to rescue any migrants, and they would not be able to return passengers to the violence in Libya.

Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, whose nation joined the search effort, called it the “biggest human tragedy of the last few years”.

Since the start of 2014, Italy has rescued nearly 200,000 people at sea, including 11,000 arrivals in the eight days up to Saturday.

At least 900 people have died trying to reach Europe this year, before this latest sinking. (T/P001/R03)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)