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At least 24 bodies were recovered and 49 people were rescued after a boat carrying around 700 migrants capsized in the Mediterranean Sea on its way to Italy from Libya, a UN official told the Anadolu Agency Sunday.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees spokesman Federico Fossi, who confirmed the death toll, told AA in Rome that around 700 migrants were feared dead in the tragedy.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said in a statement Sunday: "Only around 50 of the 700 reported to be aboard have been rescued. Should these numbers be confirmed, the incident – which happened overnight – will be the largest loss of life from any incident on the Mediterranean involving refugees and migrants."
Guterres added that this disaster "points to the need for a comprehensive European approach to address the root causes that drive so many people to this tragic end."
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said in a statement that the number of dead migrants was expected to rise further. "A tragedy unfolds everyday in the Mediterranean," Renzi said.
Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told the Times of Malta that Maltese boats were helping the Italian search-and-rescue teams. "They are literally trying to find the living among the dead floating in the water," Muscat said.
EU urged to save migrants
Top human rights bodies and charity organizations urged the European Union to launch multi-country search-and-rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea to save migrant lives.
John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International's director for Europe and Central Asia, said in a statement: "It is time for European governments to face their responsibilities and urgently set up a multi-country concerted humanitarian operation to save lives at sea.
"What is happening in the man-made tragedy is of appalling proportions. These latest deaths at sea come as a shock, but not a surprise," the statement added.
Save the Children urged EU leaders to convene crisis talks in the next 48 hours to restart search-and-rescue operations that ended last year.
Earlier this week, Save the Children also warned that more migrants would take dangerous routes to Europe because of the political turmoil in Libya, also raising concerns that many children would risk their lives to reach Italy.
Justin Forsyth, Save the Children Chief Executive Officer, said: "The scale of what is happening in the Mediterranean is not an accident, it's a direct result of our policy. It is time to put humanity before politics and immediately restart the rescue."
"Europe cannot look the other way while thousands die off our shores," Forsyth added.
Human rights organizations have repeatedly criticized European leaders for their decision in November last year to shut down the EU's Mare Nostrum search-and-rescue operation, which used to save migrants, including children, who were at risk of drowning.
Earlier, another spokesman of the UN agency for refugees, Carlotta Sami, said the current situation not only concerned Italy, but Turkey and Greece as well. "It will be the biggest disaster in the region in case the death toll is confirmed," Sami said.
EU to convene council
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini termed the incident "unacceptable" and agreed that the issue had to be dealt by the EU "without delay."
"I have decided to put the issue of migration as a formal point on the agenda of the Foreign Affairs Council I convened tomorrow in Luxembourg, where I'll present a set of proposals for Libya, one of the main routes of illegal trafficking of migrants," Mogherini said.
Pope Francis also reacted to the tragedy. "The International community must act decisively," he said.
According to the UN agency for refugees, over 35,000 migrants have arrived by boat in southern Europe so far in 2015.
If Sunday's death toll is confirmed, some 1,600 will have died so far in 2015, the agency added.
In 2014, about 219,000 migrants and aslyum seekers crossed the Mediterranean, and 3,500 lives were lost in the sea.
www.aa.com.tr/en - Cenevre
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