The Mediterranean is turning into a "vast cemetery" because of soaring migrant deaths, the UN human rights chief said on Monday, as he strongly condemned "callous" EU migration policies. With more than 700 people feared dead after a fishing boat crammed with migrants capsized off Libya on Sunday, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said he was "horrified but not surprised by this latest tragedy".
"Europe is turning its back on some of the most vulnerable migrants in the world, and risk turning the Mediterranean into a vast cemetery," Zeid said. "These deaths, and the hundreds of others that preceded them in recent months were sadly predictable," he said, blaming "a continuing failure of governance accompanied by a monumental failure of compassion."
Sunday's tragedy came after a week in which two other migrant shipwrecks left an estimated 450 people dead. Zeid's comments came as EU ministers held crisis talks in Luxembourg, announcing a 10-point action plan to try to step up both control and rescue operations.
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