Thousands of would-be immigrants have died in the past 10 years while attempting to cross to Europe by sea, experts told a public hearing held by the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee on Tuesday, according to dpa. Up to 120,000 migrants cross the sea each year and last month alone a total of 210 people were drowned or went missing in the Strait of Sicily, said Paolo Artini of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Artini, the UNHCR's representative in Rome, pointed to gaps in the legal framework concerning rescues at sea and also said there was a lack of cooperation on the matter among countries who held different views. He also referred to the case of 53 Africans photographed by a reconnaissance plane on May 21 in waters between Libya and Malta. Their whereabouts are still unknown, Artini said. Maltese MEP Simon Busuttil said that particular tragedy had occurred in Libyan waters, not in Maltese ones. Committee chairman Jean-Marie Cavada called on EU states to respect their international legal obligations regarding safety and rescue at sea and the protection of human lives. Representatives of Cyprus, Spain and Greece called for a "system of shared responsibility" to be set up between all EU countries.
