For weeks European officials have squabbled over the fate of thousands of migrants cramped in makeshift shelters on Italy's tiny island of Lampedusa, having survived perilous sea journeys from North Africa aboard rickety vessels.
Wednesday's tragedy brought into sharp focus what rights groups have denounced as the long-ignored plight of migrants forced to move because of the unrest in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.
A boat believed to be carrying about 300 people capsized in a stretch of the Mediterranean between Malta and Lampedusa. Only 51 people had been rescued by late afternoon, some 12 hours after the accident happened, officials said. Of the survivors, 48, including an eight-month pregnant woman, were picked up by an Italian coast guard patrol while three were taken aboard a trawler from Sicily.
The survivors included nationals of Eritrea, Somalia and Ivory Coast - a profile that appeared all - too familiar, one of people fleeing their violent homelands for a better life abroad. The group, many suffering from hypothermia after spending hours in the cold waters, recounted how their vessel had set sail from strife-torn Libya three days earlier.
The accident took place against the backdrop of intense diplomatic exchanges in which Italy has repeatedly accused fellow European Union member states of failing to show solidarity in dealing with migrants. Since former Tunisia president Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali was toppled in January, more then 22,000 Tunisians have arrived on Lampedusa, which, situated some 113 kilometres from Tunisia, is the part of Italian territory closest to North Africa. In the face of an "exodus of Biblical proportions," the EU had shown "inertia," Italian government ministers said.
They also warned the situation could worsen with hundreds of thousands of African migrants likely take advantage of the ongoing conflict in Libya by using that country's coastline as a springboard to reach Europe. Some Italian ministers from the anti-immigration Northern League party even openly questioned Nato's bombing of Libyan leader Qadhafi's forces - one which has benefited from Italian logistical support, including the use of air bases.
The Northern League ministers lamented how Qadhafi was no longer in a position to enforce a 2008 Rome-Tripoli friendship pact - which was slammed by the United Nations, Vatican and other critics as a violation of the rights of asylum seekers for allowing the immediate deportation of migrants intercepted at sea.
The EU initially responded to Italian demands by setting aside funds to assist with the accommodation of migrants, but said it was up to individual member states to volunteer other kinds of help. France and Germany - whose governments were last month facing regional elections and where illegal immigration remains a controversial issue - refused to take in any of the migrants.
That stance prompted Berlusconi to change tack. He first threatened to issue the Tunisians with temporary residence permits, which by the Schengen borderless agreement would allow them to enter any of the 25 co-signatory nations. These include France and Germany, where Berlusconi said many of the migrants had relatives. The Italian premier also travelled this week to Tunisia to clinch an agreement on the eventual repatriation of some of the Tunisians, although it was specified that this would not take place en masse and no timeframes were mentioned.
The EU's executive, the Commission, indicated it wants member states to take in refugees from Libya. In a letter Wednesday to member states' interior ministers, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom pushed for the resettlement in Europe of people who are stranded at North African borders after fleeing Libya. Many cannot return home as they come from war-torn home countries such as Somalia.
Malmstrom wrote in her letter that resettlement "can represent not only a life-saving measure for those concerned, but an important responsibility-sharing gesture" towards countries such as Italy. But some rights activists commenting on Wednesday's drownings, said they remained unimpressed by what they consider tardy or insufficient measures by governments.
Savino Pezzotta of the Italian Council for Refugees (CIR) said they should explain why the accident had happened "in seas presided by international fleets and which are completely militarised," due to the Nato blockade against Qadhafi's forces. "It needs to be ascertained whether international seafaring laws that specify that it is duty to provide assistance to those at risk have been violated," Pezzotta said.