The United Nations said that at least 300 migrants recently drowned trying to cross the Mediterranean from north Africa. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres condemned the EU’s search-and-rescue operation at sea as “inadequate”. He declared: “the focus has to be about saving lives. We need a robust search-and-rescue operation in the Central Mediterranean, not only a border patrol.” Full article here

Beyond search-and-rescue operations, and as the European Parliament is currently debating new migration regulations, Eurodiaconia’s member organisations advocating the respect of migrants’ fundamental rights urge the European Union to open legal immigration access and organise fair sharing of responsabilities among the Member States in order to avoid these tragedies.

In the same vein, the European Parliament Group “Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe” issued a press release yesterday arguing that “we need legal and safe routes to access the EU now. We could do this by, for example, issuing humanitarian visas at EU embassies or consular offices in temporary refugee camps around the world, in order to allow for a safe entry into the EU.” See press release.