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Mediterranean migrant death toll '30 times higher than last year': as it happened
More than 1,750 migrants perished in the Mediterranean since the start of the year - more than 30 times higher than during the same period of 2014, says the International Organisation for Migration
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00.57
That concludes our coverage for the day, a day in which the arrested captain of the migrant ship was accused of drinking wine and smoking hashish, factors that may have led to the shipwreck on Sunday morning. Two teenage survivors have also told how they struggled to safety as hundreds others died.
23.00
HMS Bulwark, one of the Royal Navy's largest vessels
The Times is reporting tonight that HMS Bulwark could be on her way to the Mediterranean to help tackle the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean that has left thousands of migrants dead.
The deployment of HMS Bulwark, a 176-metre launchpad for helicopters and small vessels that protected London during the 2012 Olympics, is among options under consideration after ministers yesterday backed a “more formidable operation on the sea” in response to the deaths of up to 1,300 migrants over the past week.
22.07
Nasir, 17, and Riajul, 17, Bangladeshis who are among 28 survivors from Sunday's migrant boat sinking
Our man Nick Squires has tracked down two of the survivors for this exclusive report. They tell him first of all about the pressures that forced them to leave Bangladesh and seek a better life and then they outline in horrific detail just how hundreds of people died on Sunday morning as their packed vessel sank.
Nasir, who paid smugglers 1,200 dinars, said: “When I was in the water there were two or three people around me, they helped me, they grabbed me by my clothes. I saw people slip beneath the waves. There were children on board, not very small ones, but maybe 10 years or older.
“There were maybe only 50 of us up on the deck. The rest – hundreds of them – were all down below. Everybody down there died. The big ship let down a rope and we were able to climb up.”
21.55
Patrick Kingsley of The Guardian is in Zuwara, the Libyan port from where the ill-fated ship set sail at the weekened, where he finds one of the leading people smugglers unimpressed by the EU's promise to tackle the problem. Hajj, a 33-year-old law graduate who is responsible for almost two thirds of the departures from the port, dismissed EU ministers as "liars".
What are they going to do, put two frigates here? Two warships? In Libyan waters? That’s an invasion.
20.18
Reports emerge the captain of the migrant boat was drunk and smoking hashish, writes Nick Squires.
Several Italian news websites claimed his condition contributed to the tragedy.
'He was drinking wine, he was drunk, and he was smoking hashish at the helm just before the boat bashed into the Portuguese ship,' survivors were quoted as saying. 'In five minutes, the boat went down.'
19.07
A senior immigration official has told Reuters that Libya has stopped many boats trying to reach Italy in the last three days with a total of 600 immigrants.
The official said at least two boats, one packed with some 250 people from Senegal, Ghana and Ethiopia and other African nationalities and another one with Ethiopians and Eritreans on board, were stopped in the past three days after sailing off from Libya, he said.
The UN Security Council also called for "a global response to this common challenge, in order to protect migrants from being victimised by human traffickers".
Mohammed Ali Malek (C, rear), one of two survivors of Saturday's migrant boat disaster, later arrested on suspicion of people trafficking, is seen watching bodies of dead migrants being disembarked from the Italian coastguard ship Bruno Gregoretti, at Senglea in Valletta's Grand Harbour (Reuters)
18.35
Survivors told aid workers the wreck was caused when one of the smugglers crashed the boat against the Portuguese-flagged King Jacob container ship that had responded to a distress call, according to Carlotta Sami, UNHCR spokesman, AP report.
"The survivors said that the person who was steering the boat, their smuggler, was navigating badly, and he did a bad move that made it crash against the bigger ship," Sami said by telephone from Sicily.
Prosecutors said that after the trawler's 27-year-old captain, Mohammed Ali Malek, rammed the Portuguese vessel, terrified migrants rushed around the overcrowded boat, which was already unbalanced from the collision. The ship pitched in the water before finally tipping over, and sinking.
18.14
A major Italian investigation has revealed the pitiless but lucrative system by which traffickers transport tens of thousands of refugees and asylum seekers to Europe, including Britain, writes Nick Squires in Catania.
Police secretly recorded hundreds of telephone conversations in which smugglers congratulated each other on the millions of euros and dollars they were making and laughed about how desperate migrants were to board the boats from the Libyan coast.
"(The migrants) say I put too many people on board the boats, but it is they who are so keen to get going," said one alleged trafficker, a 34-year-old Eritrean named as Mered Medhanie, nicknamed "The General".
The traffickers were recorded discussing where best to invest their money, from Israel and Dubai to Switzerland, Canada and the US.
"My style is like Gaddafi - nobody can be more powerful than me," said Medhanie.
17.07
Jean-Claude Juncker, European Commission president, and other EU leaders repeated their promises to tackle the crisis and stop more deaths with greater funding.
"In terms of funding needed for rescue missions at sea I expect that we don't ask questions on Thursday but offer funding," Werner Faymann, the Austrian chancellor, told journalists in a joint news conference with the EC president.
Mr Juncker agreed with Mr Faymann: "I see this exactly so."
Austria has proposed setting up refugee centres in north African countries with the help of international agencies and despite their initial agreement, Mr Juncker said there would not be anything like that in Libya.
"In Libya there will certainly not be anything like that," he said, adding: "I would like to see, and I don't know if that's possible, that asylum requests are dealt with in Africa."
16.48
Tony Abbott, the Australian prime minister whose government introduced tough measures to turn back asylum-seeker boats, said today the European Union should follow suit, describing it as the only way to end deaths at sea.
15.57
UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said Sunday's migrant boat tragedy was "the deadliest incident in the Mediterranean we have ever recorded."
Mr Edwards said there had been 1,300 deaths in April alone, making it the deadliest month on record.
Volker Turk, the director of international protection at the UN refugee agency, said most of the migrants taking the perilous journey were refugees.
"If you look at the numbers last year, over 50 percent of the people who crossed the Mediterranean were people in need of international protection. Mostly Syrians, Eritreans, some Somalis," he said.
15.47
Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, has insisted that Britain has a "moral duty" to help rescue migrants crossing the Mediterranean.
Speaking at an election event in Ramsgate, Kent, he said:
If you’re asking, do I think that we should withdraw a humanitarian response, my answer to you of course is absolutely not. It’s our moral duty to help where we can.
Obviously the majority of the burden for this will fall on the countries most immediately affected and that’s only natural. But Britain is a great country and a compassionate country and if we can help them I think we should.”
His message contrasts with Downing Street, which made it clear that it still did not support calls for increased search and rescue missions, describing them as “just one part” of the solution.
15.16
The foreign minister of Libya's internationally recognised government on Tuesday condemned "death smugglers" who organised the doomed voyage to Europe that left an estimated 800 dead in a shipwreck.
"The migrants left from areas under the control of militia. We condemn the acts of these death smugglers," Mohamed al-Dayri told AFP news agency in a telephone interview from Indonesia where he is attending an Asia-Africa summit.
Libya has an elected parliament and an internationally recognised government based in the far eastern city of Tobruk, and a rival government and legislature backed by Islamists in Tripoli.
13.51
The Italian coast guard said 638 migrants were rescued from rubber dinghies on Monday in six separate operations and merchant ships and coast guard patrol boats were assisting a fishing boat carrying migrants some 80 miles off the south eastern coast of Calabria, in mainland Italy.
13.46
A change.org petition to ask the European Union to restore a robust operation of search and rescue at sea has gathered more than 77,000 petitions since it was launched yesterday (via @aljwhite).
13.14
Here are the mugshots of the two alleged smugglers who have been arrested on suspicion of causing the deaths of an estimated 800 people.
The captain, Tunisian national Mohammed Ali Malek, 27, is being held on suspicion of multiple murder, causing a shipwreck and aiding illegal immigration. Syrian national Mahmud Bikhit, 25, faces potential charges on the latter count. Both men are to be put before a judge later Tuesday.
Mohammed Ali Malek, left, and Mahmud Bikhit who have been arrested on suspicion of being respectively captain and crew member of the migrant ship that capsized off the Libyan coast (EPA)
12.48
In this piece written back in 2013 - "The African North Korea which thousands will risk anything to escape" - David Blair explains the situation in Eritrea. Many of the refugees attempting to reach Europe are still fleeing from a vicious regime.
"There is no civil war in Eritrea: its people flee because their isolated homeland could pass as an African version of North Korea. Like the Kim regime in Pyongyang, President Isaias Afewerki keeps Eritrea on a permanent war-footing..." continue reading...
10.58
More than 1,750 migrants have perished in the Mediterranean since the start of the year - more than 30 times higher than during the same period of 2014, the International Organisation for Migration said on Tuesday.
"IOM calculates the 2015 death toll now is more than 30 times last year's total at this date... when just 56 deaths of migrants had been reported on the Mediterranean," spokesman Joel Millman told reporters in Geneva.
10.35
Nick Squires has more details about the two alleged smugglers who were arrested last night after they disembarked from a coast guard ship at Catania.
Italian prosecutors just released the names of the two alleged smugglers who were arrested last night after they disembarked from a coast guard ship at Catania.
They are - Mohammed Ali Malek, Tunisian, 27, the alleged captain, and Mahmud Bikhit, Syrian, 25, an alleged member of the smuggler crew.
The captain is being charged with causing a shipwreck, multiple manslaughter and aiding and abetting trafficking. Bikhit is being charged with aiding and abetting trafficking.
Prosecutors say they still don't know for sure how many people died in the sinking, but it could be as many as 950.
Prosecutors say "many migrants, including woman and children, were locked in the hold."
Mohammed Ali Malek, left, and Mahmud Bikhit (Alessandra Tarantino/AP)
In a statement on Tuesday, Catania's prosecutors said the smuggler captain mistakenly rammed his boat into the Portuguese-flagged merchant ship that had come to its rescue. The prosecutors say the migrants themselves then shifted position on the boat, which was already off balance due to the collision.
Only 24 bodies were recovered, while 28 people survived.
"On the basis of what has emerged, no blame can be accorded to the crew of the merchant ship which came to rescue and in no way contributed to the fatal event," said the Catania prosecutors.
Surviving immigrants lie on the deck of Italian coastguard ship Bruno Gregoretti in Senglea, in Valletta's Grand Harbour. Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters
09.40
William Hague, the former Foreign Secretary, has denied that military intervention to remove Colonel Gaddafi from power in Libya triggered the Mediterranean migrant crisis.
Mr Hague, who was Foreign Secretary during the intervention in 2011, told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme:
We have saved lives in Libya, we saved many thousands of lives when Colonel Gaddafi's forces were advancing on parts of Libya in 2011.
The elections they held in 2011 were successful but there is no doubt at all Libya has gone backwards very seriously since then, different factions have fought against each other both politically and militarily.
All efforts to find a peaceful solution have so far failed but we have to maintain those efforts. It will be a long effort I think."
He added:
None of us should pretend there is a quick fix to this, there is some mixture of measures, some of which were agreed yesterday, going after the traffickers, working better with the third countries, enhancing the Triton system of border security and rescue.
The European heads of government, including the Prime Minister, will meet on Thursday on exactly what should be done. It needs a comprehensive solution as the Prime Minister said yesterday.
09.14
How do different countries cope with migrants arriving by boat? Associated Press has this summary:
• Since July 2013, Australia has refused to allow refugees who arrive by boat to settle on the mainland, and has been turning back boats carrying asylum seekers since the current government was elected in September 2013. It has a detention camp for asylum seekers on Christmas Island and pays Papua New Guinea and the Pacific island nation of Nauru to run similar camps.
• Indonesia doesn't legally recognise asylum seekers or refugees. But it but does operate 13 detention centers around the country that temporarily houses them while the UN High Commissioner of Refugees office processes their applications for refugee status and eventual resettlement in a third country such as the US or Canada.
• Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya, a long-persecuted Muslim minority group in Myanamr, have fled to Bangladesh in recent years. In 2012, border authorities reportedly forced more than 1,300 back into the sea in creaky vessels. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina denied the refugees had been driven away, but made clear she didn't want them, saying the country, already densely populated, "cannot bear this burden."
• Asylum seekers and migrants arriving in Europe without visas are interviewed and finger-printed by authorities. EU nations have "reception centers" to house migrants where they are fed and given health care while their applications for asylum are being assessed.
Some migrants are given temporary permits allowing them to stay while their cases are studied. The country where they land is responsible for handling this, including providing free legal assistance. The process should not exceed 11 months. Those who do not qualify for residency of some kind are in some cases invited to leave Europe voluntarily, others are expelled.
08.00
"War on the merchants of death," reads the front page of Sicilian newspaper La Sicilia this morning, quoting Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister. Mr Renzi, whose country bears the brunt of the problem, said yesterday that Rome was studying the possibility of mounting "targeted interventions" against Libya-based people smugglers.
"Attacks on death rackets, attacks against slave traders (traffickers) are in our thinking," Mr Renzi told a press conference with his Maltese counterpart Joseph Muscat.
07.14
Here is a recap of the 10 points put forward by the European Commission and backed by EU foreign and interior ministers at a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday:
- The EU will reinforce the EU's maritime patrolling operations in the Mediterranean, called Triton and Poseidon, by giving them more money and equipment. The EU will also extend their scope to patrol a wider area of sea.
- The bloc will make a systematic effort to capture and destroy vessels used by the people smugglers, using the EU's counter-piracy "Atalanta" operation off Somalia as a model. EU officials said it would be a combined civilian and military operation but gave no more details.
- The EU's law enforcement, border control, asylum and prosecutors' agencies will meet regularly and work closely to gather information on how the smugglers operate, to trace their funds and help investigate them.
- The European Union's asylum support office will to deploy teams in Italy and Greece for joint processing of asylum applications.
- EU governments will fingerprint all migrants.
- The EU will consider options for an "emergency relocation mechanism" for migrants.
- The European Commission will launch a voluntary pilot project on resettling refugees across the EU
- The EU will establish a new return programme for rapid return of "irregular" migrants co-ordinated by EU agency Frontex from the EU's Mediterranean countries
- The EU will engage with countries surrounding Libya through a joint effort between the Commission and the EU's diplomatic service
- The EU will deploy immigration liaison officers abroad to gather intelligence on migratory flows and strengthen the role of the EU delegations
05.37
Good morning. If you are just joining us now, here's what you need to know: Two men - the suspected captain and a crewmember - were arrested after arriving in Catania, Sicily, just before midnight on Monday. They were among 27 survivors of what has been described as the worst ever migrant shipwreck.
The UN has so far confirmed 800 deaths.
Nick Squires has more details of the recovery mission under way in the Mediterranean and about those who died:
The asylum seekers are believed to have included 200 women and dozens of children. “A few hundred were forced into the hold, the lowest level. They were locked in and prevented from coming out,” said Giovanni Salvi, a prosecutor in Catania, who is leading the criminal investigation.
Hundreds more were locked into the second level, while the remainder were on the upper deck, probably after paying more money to the smugglers.
Bodies of dead migrants lie on the deck of the Italian ship Bruno Gregoretti in Senglea, Malta, on Monday
05.05
The Times of Malta has a powerful editorial on European inaction. The frustration felt at the epicentre is clear. And as it points out, this is not a new problem but one marked by a decade of dithering.
Migration is a complex humanitarian and political issue. The debate about it is characterised by very strongly held political positions, based on weak evidence and poor analysis. The tendency for politicians to think with their guts, not with their heads, has produced polarised ideological positions that are unhealthy and have led to poor policy development.
Domestic politics in European member states has trumped humanitarian considerations. The result has been paralysis in Brussels and throughout European capitals while hundreds die.
04.00
Tony Abbott, the Australian prime minister, has offered his advice on tackling deaths at sea and urged the EU to follow his hardline stance. Under Canberra's controversial policy, navy ships intercept boats carrying asylum-seekers and turn them back to where they transited from, mostly Indonesia, or send those on board to offshore processing camps in the Pacific islands of Papua New Guinea and Nauru.
We must resolve to stop this terrible problem and the only way you can stop the deaths is to stop the people-smuggling trade.
That's why it is so urgent that the countries of Europe adopt very strong policies that will end the people-smuggling trade across the Mediterranean.
02.50
We may never know exactly how many people died in Sunday morning's shipwreck off Libya, but the United Nations refugee agency has confirmed the deaths of 800 migrants after speaking to survivors. Carlotta Sami, spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said on Tuesday morning:
We can say that 800 are dead
There were a little over 800 people on board, including children aged between 10 and 12. There were Syrians, about 150 Eritreans, Somalians... They had left Tripoli at about 8 am on Saturday.
02.20
And here's today's Daily Telegraph front page featuring a photograph of migrants clambering out of the clear blue Mediterranean after three more people drown trying to find a new life in Europe.
02.12
Not surprising that the plight of migrants risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean makes many of Tuesday's front pages, illustrated in several cases with dramatic images.