Amnesty slams EU’s rescue operations for migrants

LONDON 

The latest Mediterranean tragedy that killed at least 10 migrants exposes the European Union’s failures in carrying out coordinated rescue operations, the globally renowned human rights organization, Amnesty International, said Wednesday.

At least 10 people were killed when a boat carrying migrants capsized off Sicily Tuesday, the Italian coast guard said Wednesday, adding that 121 people were rescued from the boat that included many Syrians.

"The deaths of at least 10 more refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean expose how European governments are still failing to provide adequate resources for a coordinated search-and-rescue operation that would save countless lives," Amnesty said.

Merchant vessels, as well as Italian and Tunisian coast guards responded to the distress calls, one of which came from around 50 nautical miles (92 kilometers) north of Libya.

“Merchant vessels and national coastguards have again responded valiantly to the immense and growing challenge of saving the lives of vulnerable migrants, refugees and asylum seekers off Europe’s southern shores,” said Gauri van Gulik, deputy director for Europe and Central Asia at Amnesty.

“But that’s far from enough in the face of this growing humanitarian crisis. Without a European search-and-rescue operation, the EU’s approach looks increasingly haphazard and negligent,” she added.

 - EU needs ‘sense of urgency’

On Wednesday, the European Commission said at a press briefing in Brussels that the EU needed a collective “sense of urgency” about its response to migration to Europe.

Iverna McGowan, acting director of Amnesty International European Institutions Office, said: “Today, the European Commission publicly recognized that Triton was not a replacement for Italy’s Mare Nostrum. Surely, a sense of urgency should include pulling out all the stops to fill the gap left by the closure of this vital search-and-rescue mission.”

Triton is the EU's border management operation, and one Triton vessel was involved in the rescue operations Tuesday, although it was far beyond the waters patrolled by the EU-run mission.

"Amnesty International has repeatedly called for an EU wide search-and-rescue mission with at least the same mandate and resources as Italy’s Mare Nostrum operation, which saved more than 170,000 lives before it was shut down late last year," the group said.

"A new European Agenda on Migration, set for release in mid-May, will include the increase of safe and legal migration routes to Europe. But it is not expected to pave the way for a coordinated search-and-rescue mission to respond to the growing numbers of deaths at sea," it concluded.