Europe grapples with deadly flow of migrants

Jane Onyanga-Omara | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Hundreds of migrants feared dead after boat capsizes Up to 700 migrants are feared dead after the boat carrying them capsized in the Mediterranean Sea. Thousands of migrants have lost their lives making the treacherous journey from Africa to Europe in recent years.

European officials hold an emergency meeting Monday as they struggle to confront a growing humanitarian crisis following the presumed deaths Sunday of hundreds of people aboard a smuggler's boat from the Libya coast that capsized in the Mediterranean.

While the exact number aboard is uncertain, the deaths Sunday could be the Mediterranean's deadliest migrant disaster.

"How can it be that we daily are witnessing a tragedy?" said Italian Premier Matteo Renzi, who summoned his top ministers to a strategy session in Rome on Sunday evening ahead of Monday's European Union meeting in Luxumbourg, where foreign ministers added stopping he smugglers to their agenda.

"How can it be that we daily are witnessing a tragedy?" he asked.

Survivor accounts about the number of people on board varied from 700 to as many as 950, the Associated Press reported.

Only a few dozen people had been rescued. Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat called it the "biggest human tragedy of the last few years."

Renzi said authorities are "not in a position to confirm" a survivor's estimate that as many as 700 people were thrown into the sea when the boat capsized. By nightfall Sunday, 28 survivors and 24 bodies were pulled from the water, Renzi said.

A survivor from Bangladesh said 950 were aboard, Italian prosecutor Giovanni Salvi told AP. About 300 people were in the hold of the 66-foot fishing boat when it overturned, and about 200 women and dozens of children were also on board, the survivor said. Salvi stressed that there was no confirmation yet of the man's account.

Tens of thousands of people are fleeing war and persecution in North Africa and the Middle East for Europe — and risking drowning while crossing the Mediterranean. The growing humanitarian crisis will likely worsen this spring as the weather improves.

The latest capsizing prompted European officials and Pope Francis to call for action to stop the deadly tide of migration. Last week, 400 people were presumed drowned when another boat capsized, bringing this year's total so far of migrant deaths to more than 900, according to the United Nations.

The chaos and violence in Libya have made it an easier port for smugglers to take people across the Mediterranean.

The European Union's foreign minister, Federica Mogherini, added migration as a last-minute emergency issue to an EU foreign ministers' meeting on Monday in Luxembourg.

"Europe can do more and Europe must do more," Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, said Sunday. "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."

Renzi ruled out political calls for a naval blockade off Libya's coast, saying it would only "wind up helping the smugglers." He said military ships would rescue any migrants, and it would be impossible to force passengers back to Libya because of the chaos there.

Pope Francis, speaking earlier in St. Peter's Square, urged leaders to "act decisively and quickly to stop these tragedies from recurring. These are men and women like us, brothers seeking a better life."

The Italian Coast Guard said the fishing vessel that capsized was carrying 500 to 700 people when the incident happened around midnight local time, the BBC reported.

Muscat put the number of survivors at 50, and International Organization for Migration spokesman Joel Millman said 49 survived, the Associated Press reported.

"Since the waters of the Mediterranean Sea are not too cold at the moment, the authorities hope to find more survivors," a statement from Millman said.

The Coast Guard said the boat was reported to be sinking as the King Jacob, a Portuguese-registered merchant ship, approached to attempt a rescue. The ship recovered 28 people before the vessel overturned.

The Coast Guard said it may have capsized "because its occupants moved to the side closest to the cargo ship," the AP said.

The incident happened about 120 miles south of the Italian island of Lampedusa, off Libyan waters.

Italian vessels, the Maltese Navy and commercial ships were taking part in the rescue operation.

Italian Border Police Gen. Antonino Iraso told Italian news channel SkyTG24 that wreckage from the migrants' boat had been seen in the sea.

"They are literally trying to find people alive among the dead floating in the water," Muscat said.

"A tragedy is unfolding in the Mediterranean and if the EU and the world continue to close their eyes, they will be judged in the harshest terms as it was judged in the past when it closed its eyes to genocides, when the comfortable did nothing," Muscat said according to the Times of Malta.

In last week's incident, 400 migrants were presumed dead after a double-deck boat capsized Monday about 75 miles south of Lampedusa. On Thursday, 41 migrants were feared drowned in the Mediterranean and, in a separate incident, Italian police arrested 15 Muslim migrants who survivors said tossed 12 Christians from a boat during a recent attempt to cross the sea.

Since April 10, more than 8,500 people have been rescued from several dozen boats and rubber dinghies in the Mediterranean, according to the Italian Coast Guard, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported.

The EU took over Mediterranean patrols after Italy phased out its so-called Mare Nostrum ("Our Sea") operation in November. Mare Nostrum was launched in 2013 after 360 migrants died off the coast of Lampedusa.

The EU's Triton mission patrol operates only a few miles off Italy's coast, while Mare Nostrum patrols took Italian rescue ships up close to Libya's coast, where most of the smuggling operations originate.

At least 3,500 of the 219,000 refugees and migrants — many fleeing conflicts in Africa, Syria and Iraq — who tried to cross the Mediterranean through irregular routes last year died, the UNHCR reported.

Contributing: Katharine Lackey, William M. Welch