Tight EU border controls are fuelling the business of smugglers who allegedly sank a boat in the Mediterranean last week, killing 500 migrants on board, Amnesty International said Thursday. Nicholas Beger, who heads Amnesty's European Institutions Office in Brussels, said "their business is in demand now more than ever due to the EU's migration policies and practices" that focus on border controls and security measures.
"The barriers created by Europe are putting lives at risk," he said in a statement when asked by AFP to comment on EU efforts to stop smuggling in the wake of the latest mass deaths. Some 500 migrants including up to 100 children drowned after smugglers sank their ship last week when the Syrian, Palestinian, Egyptian, Sudanese and other passengers refused to change to a smaller vessel on their way to Italy, survivors said. Just 10 people survived the incident off Malta, with some of them telling the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) their boat was intentionally sunk by a group of 10 smugglers said to be Palestinians and Egyptians.