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‘No more excuses’, EU warns as another migrant boat in distress

– An ‘avoidable’ disaster –

Europe’s southern shores have been swamped over the past two weeks with migrants fleeing war and hardship, mostly via Libya.

In another tragedy, police in Greece reported three people killed, including a child, in the sinking of a boat off the island of Rhodes.

The sail boat ran aground on a crossing from Turkey.

Dramatic YouTube footage showed people trying to reach survivors huddled on a piece of wreckage as they were being swept by the waves towards the rocks. Ninety-three people were rescued alive, port police said.

Meanwhile, Italian and Maltese navy boats continued to scour the water for the victims of Sunday’s disaster, which brings to an estimated 1,600 the number of migrants who have drowned in the Mediterranean this year, many times the toll over the same period last year.

Only 28 survivors have been rescued so far, along with 24 bodies, which were taken to Malta.

One survivor told Italian authorities there were as many as 950 people on board and that some had been locked below deck by the smugglers.

The tragedy caused an outcry across Europe, where newspapers declared it the “EU’s darkest day”.

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Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, which is the top destination in Europe for migrants, said she was “appalled” by the disaster, calling it “not worthy of Europe”.

Refugee and rights bodies demanded European governments beef up its sea rescue operations and address the underlying causes of the unprecedented migrant flows.

Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat urged the EU to address the chaos in war-torn Libya, which people smugglers have made the main launching pad for rickety overloaded boats that often run out of fuel half-way.

Speaking at a press conference with Muscat Italy’s Renzi said “the hypothesis of military intervention (to stabilise Libya) is not on the table… but what is possible are targeted interventions to destroy a criminal racket.”

Since the 2011 uprising that ousted longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi, Libya has been mired in chaos, with rival factions fighting it out for control of the oil-rich state.

Mogherini said that, just as the Islamist attacks in Paris in January had generated a common response, Sunday’s shipwreck off Libya should give momentum to finding a common migration policy.

“The main issue here is to build a common sense of European responsibility, knowing that there is no easy solution,” she added.

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