Sunday Times 2
Latest migrant deaths fuel Italian, Maltese calls for EU action
View(s):ROME, Oct 12 (Reuters) – Italian calls for Europe to do more on the migrant crisis grew on Saturday and Malta’s prime minister said the Mediterranean was becoming a “cemetery” after another boat sank off Sicily, killing dozens more people.
Italian and Maltese navy ships recovered 34 bodies and rescued 206 migrants after their boat sank about 60 nautical miles south of Sicily on Friday and rescued more than 200 others in separate incidents today.
Friday’s disaster came just over a week after at least 339 people drowned when a boat sank less than a kilometre from Lampedusa, which has become the main entry point into Europe for migrant boats.
“I don’t know how many more people need to die at sea before something gets done,” Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said in an interview with the BBC. He said he would join Italy in pressing for action at the next European Council.
“The fact is that as things stand, we are just building a
cemetery within our Mediterranean Sea,” he said.