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STC Urges EU Leaders to Act to Prevent More Mass Drownings

Save the Children Urges EU Leaders to Act to Prevent More Mass Drownings at Sea.

Save the Children is urging EU leaders to convene crisis talks to restart the search and rescue operation that ended late last year. This follows the news of another mass drowning in the Mediterranean.

Seven hundred people have died in the most recent sinking and children are expected to be amongst the latest figure.

Valerio Neri, Director- General of Save the Children Italy says as migrant boats continue to flood into Europe from Africa, European leaders can no longer pretend nothing is happening.

“We cannot stand-by and watch while thousands of people lose their lives to follow their wish: to find a better life far from war, dictatorships and poverty.

“Given the number of people dying at sea, not only in Italy but in all of the European Union, the responsibility of the search and rescue response must be solved by the EU and all its members.”

The condition of the boats being used by traffickers is deteriorating; they are overcrowded and the violence of traffickers towards migrants, is worsening by the day. Children who recently landed told Save the Children that the boats they were in were shot at in order to make them leave.

Save the Children says what’s required is a search and rescue system to respond to the needs of all the migrants arriving, especially unaccompanied minors and families with children.

Save the Children has been responding to the needs of children arriving in Lampedusa, Sicily, Calabria and Apulia and is deeply concerned at the reports of violence experienced and witnessed by children in Libya.

ENDS

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