FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
The EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, has declared that the sinking of the ship full of migrants off the coast of Greece could be the "biggest tragedy ever" in the Mediterranean.
Dozens of people were killed and hundreds more missing when the ship traveling from the Libyan coastal city of Tobruk to Italy capsized off the coast of Greece earlier this week. The true toll of the disaster has not yet become clear.
"We still don't have all the information about what happened, but it looks like this is the worst tragedy we've ever seen in the Mediterranean," she told a news conference in Brussels on Friday.
The tragedy has thrown a spotlight on the EU's refugee crisis, in which every year tens of thousands of migrants fleeing war, persecution, climate change and poverty risk treacherous routes to Europe. Johansson condemned the role of "smugglers" who put people on boats.
"They are not sending them to Europe, they are sending them to death. This is what they are doing and it is absolutely necessary to prevent it," she said.
"We have seen a 600% increase in these departures this year," she added, stressing the need to find "different ways to fight smugglers and save lives."
"When it comes to fighting smugglers, we can't rely on just one way of doing it. We must use intelligence, we must use joint police investigations together with the countries of origin, with the countries of transit, with the countries of departure", said the commissioner.
Other global bodies such as the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) called for "urgent and decisive action" to prevent further deaths in the Mediterranean and stressed "the duty to rescue people in distress at sea without delay."
Greek authorities have faced criticism for the way the disaster was handled. Just over 100 people were rescued and at least 79 people died, while some reports put the number on board as high as 750. Relatives of those on board are now desperately searching for survivors.
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