UN says ‘much more required’ to prevent migrant deaths

PanARMENIAN.Net - The UN has said "much more is required" to prevent the deaths of migrants fleeing to Europe after hundreds were reported dead in recent days.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for a "collective political response" to avert "a crisis of solidarity".

According to BBC News, he called on states involved to "expand safe and legal channels of migration".

This week, 71 people, thought to be Syrians, were found dead in a lorry in Austria. Some 200 others are feared dead after two boats sank off Libya.

Ban said he was "horrified and heartbroken" at the latest loss of life.

"A large majority of people undertaking these arduous and dangerous journeys are refugees fleeing from places such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan," he said. "The international community must also show greater determination in resolving conflicts and other problems that leave people little choice but to flee."

Ban called on nations to observe international law on asylum requests, and not to "force people to return to places from which they have fled if there is a well-founded fear of persecution... This is not only a matter of international law; it is also our duty as human beings."

He said: "This is a human tragedy that requires a determined collective political response. It is a crisis of solidarity, not a crisis of numbers."

Ban also urged more action against people smugglers, a call echoed by White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

"The violence and instability in North Africa and the Middle East isn't just destabilizing the immediate region but is starting to have a destabilizing impact on other regions of the world too, including in Europe," Earnest said.

Some 200 people are feared to have drowned after two boats capsized on Thursday, Aug 27, as they tried to cross from Zuwara, west of Tripoli in Libya, to Italy.

About 100 bodies have already been found and Libyan workers are continuing to search for 100 other people who are still unaccounted for.

Some survivors were rescued having spent the night in the water, clinging to life jackets.

Tens of thousands of migrants from conflict-hit states in the Middle East and Africa have been trying to make their way to Europe in recent months.

A record number of 107,500 migrants crossed the EU's borders last month. Some of them pay large sums of money to smugglers to get them through borders illegally.