Migrant Deaths soar as Mediterranean sees Worst Tragedy in Living Memory by UNHCR, IOM, agencies 12:20pm 19th Apr, 2015   19 April 2015    UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres today expressed his shock at the latest boat capsizing on the Mediterranean, and the hundreds of lives reported to have been lost.    As of a short time ago, according to information from the Maltese authorities, only around 50 of the 700 reported to be aboard, had 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. It follows an incident only last week in which 400 lives were lost. The Lampedusa disaster of October 2013 saw almost 600 lives lost in two separate incidents.    Available information is that the boat overturned shortly before midnight on Saturday, in Libyan waters, some 180 kilometers south of Italy''s Lampedusa. Italian and Maltese naval vessels and merchant ships have been among the approximately 20 vessels, along with several helicopters, that are engaged in the rescue operation being coordinated by the Italian authorities.    "This disaster confirms how urgent it is to restore a robust rescue-at-sea operation and establish credible legal avenues to reach Europe. Otherwise people seeking safety will continue to perish at sea," said António Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees. "But it also points to the need for a comprehensive European approach to address the root causes that drive so many people to this tragic end. I hope the EU will rise to the occasion, fully assuming a decisive role to prevent future such tragedies."    UNHCR has been advocating for an urgent response from the European Union to deal with the challenges faced by the thousands of people risking their lives to find safety in Europe. A comprehensive set of proposals has been shared by UNHCR, including a more robust search-and-rescue operation as well as credible legal avenue to reach safety – such as resettlement, humanitarian visas, and enhanced family reunification.    So far in 2015, more than 35,000 asylum seekers and migrants have arrived by boat in southern Europe and – if today''s toll is confirmed – some 1600 have died. In 2014, around 219,000 people crossed the Mediterranean, and 3,500 lives were lost.    http://www.unhcr.org/5533c2406.html http://www.iom.int/cms/en/sites/iom/home.html    April 2015    Mediterranean migrants; 30,000 people could die this year, IOM says. (AFP)    Up to 30,000 people could die crossing the Mediterranean this year if migration attempts continue at the current rate, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) says.    Good weather has triggered an extraordinary surge in dangerous journeys from Libya to Italy, resulting in the deaths of 450 people in just the past week.    IOM spokesman Joel Millman said the number of dead is 10 times that at the same point last year, and a shocking toll looms in 2015.    "We''re talking about a death toll this year that''s already 10 times what it was last year," Mr Millman said.    "I think 3,179 deaths in the Mediterranean last year. If this trend were to continue we''d be talking about over 30,000 and that''s quite alarming."    The crucial difference this year is that instead of the search and rescue operation conducted by Italy until late last year, there is the much more constrained EU-funded operation that aid groups have criticized as inadequate.    Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi blamed the escalating violence in Libya as a contributing reason for the growing number of crossings.    The UN has called for urgent action to prevent the deaths, and stop unscrupulous people smugglers.    Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said Europe must do the decent thing and reinstate efforts like Italy''s cancelled maritime operation.    "I fear that politicians and the general public is willing too much to close their eyes at thousands of people dying at our doorsteps, because people are seemingly afraid of migration flows," Mr Egeland said.    "I think this is actually a moment of truth for European civilisation or the lack of such. The only decent thing that''s now to have a search and rescue operation where we have a fleet to rescue tens of thousands of people."    Mr Egeland said the Mediterranean is now the world''s most dangerous border between countries at peace.    Pope Francis urged EU leaders to act to stem the loss of life. "These are men and women like us", he said urging leaders to "act decisively and quickly to stop these tragedies from recurring".    UN secretary-general Mr Ban said he was "shocked and deeply saddened" by the reports of the latest boat disaster.    Mr Ban said governments must not only improve rescue at sea but also "ensure the right to asylum of the growing number of people worldwide fleeing war who need refuge and safe haven".    "We have said too many times ''never again''. Now is time for the European Union as such to tackle these tragedies without delay", said EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.    "We need to save human lives all together, as all together we need to protect our borders and to fight the trafficking of human beings."    The EU announced an emergency meeting of foreign and interior ministers to discuss what Amnesty International described as a "man-made tragedy".    Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi called for an emergency summit of European Union (EU) leaders. "It has to be a priority. We cannot remain insensitive when every day there is a massacre in the Mediterranean," he said.    The president of the European Council said he was planning to hold an emergency summit on illegal immigration in the wake of the tragedy.    Amnesty International called Sunday''s accident a "man-made tragedy of appalling proportions". "These latest deaths at sea come as a shock, but not a surprise," he said.    Amnesty is among numerous NGOs calling for the restoration of an Italian navy search-and-rescue operation known as Mare Nostrum which was suspended at the end of last year.    Italy scaled back the mission after failing to persuade its European partners to help meet its operating costs of $12.5 million per month.    Mare Nostrum has been partially replaced by a much smaller EU-run operation called Triton which has a fraction of the assets and specialist manpower previously deployed by Italy.    The disaster is the latest in a growing number of mass drownings of migrants attempting to reach Europe on overcrowded, unseaworthy boats run by people smugglers who are able to operate out of Libya with impunity because of the chaos engulfing the north African state.    * Watch IOM Director General William Lacy Swing tell CNN''s Christiane Amanpour that we''re in a period of "unprecedented human disasters", that is driving displacements, via the link below. 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