Migrant boat disaster: Leading aid and human rights groups accuse Britain of fuelling refugee crisis

19 charities have signed an open letter to David Cameron on the issue

Survivors cling on to debris after the boat they were in ran aground at Zefyros beach in Rhodes on Monday (EPA)

Leading aid and human rights groups have accused Britain of fuelling the crisis which has led to mass drownings in the Mediterranean by providing no legal means for refugees to reach safety and helping to build the walls of “fortress Europe”.

In an open letter to David Cameron published by The Independent, a coalition of 19 charities calls on the UK to ensure that a fully resourced search-and-rescue mission is re-established to prevent tragedies such as the deaths of at least 700 migrants off the island of Lampedusa over the weekend.

Three people, including a child, died, with at least 90 people being rescued (Reuters)

The organisations, led by the British Refugee Council, Amnesty International and Oxfam, condemn Britain’s failure to offer an “asylum visa” to those fleeing conflict zones such as Syria and declare that EU immigration policies have had “deadly results”. They warn: “The solution can never be to watch on while desperate people drown. Until safer ways to seek refuge are found, more people will be forced into the hands of smugglers… Building the walls of fortress Europe has had deadly results.”

The letter is published amid signs that Britain and other leading European nations will reverse the decision to put in place a scaled-back EU search-and-rescue operation in the Mediterranean at a time when ever-increasing numbers of migrants are being squeezed on to inadequate vessels by people smugglers in lawless Libya.

Mr Cameron broke off from election campaigning to describe the tragedy off Lampedusa as a “dark day” for Europe and lay the blame for the deaths of hundreds of migrants on the capsized fishing boat on “appalling human traffickers”. A Bangladeshi survivor of the disaster claimed yesterday there had been 900 on board the vessel while Italian investigators said it appeared that many of its passengers had been locked inside the hull by the smugglers.

The Prime Minister will attend an emergency summit of European leaders on Thursday to discuss what he said should be a “comprehensive plan” that would include enhanced search and rescue as well as bringing stability to the native countries of the migrants. Mr Cameron said: “Britain can do more and lend a hand, and in that spirit I’ll be going to the European Council meeting.”

As Italy and Malta announced they were working on the rescue of up to three more vessels – one thought to be carrying up to 300 people – after new distress calls were received, it emerged that the Italian authorities are considering military action against the traffickers. The Italian premier Matteo Renzi, who discussed the migrant crisis with Mr Cameron over the phone yesterday, is even considering sinking the smugglers’ vessels in Libyan harbours before they can take to sea, according to media reports.

The Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and Home Secretary Theresa May have held a meeting of their EU opposites in Luxembourg to discuss immediate measures to deal with the situation in Libya. A 10-point plan to tackle the crisis agreed by EU ministers yesterday included boosting patrols with greater “financial resources” and a systematic effort “to capture and destroy” boats used by smugglers.

But as boats arrived in Malta and the Sicilian city of Catania bringing the dead from Sunday’s disaster, high-level condemnation continued of the EU’s approach to controlling the tide of migrants trying to reach the shores of Italy and Greece. Save the Children said the death toll of migrants in recent days should be compared to the sinking of the Titanic and was 31 times the number killed in the sinking of the Costa Concordia.

An EU-funded, Italian-led operation, Mare Nostrum, which pulled more than 150,000 people from the Mediterranean in 2014, was replaced last year with a much smaller scheme, known as Operation Triton, amid concern that the more comprehensive emergency cover was acting a “pull factor” for migrants.

Some 31,000 have made the journey in the first three months of this year with 1,500 deaths; the equation of 1.5 to five per cent of crossings resulting in death seems to be a bet worth taking (AP)

Humanitarian groups said the policy has failed to diminish the number of migrants seeking to reach Europe and left those setting sail in unseaworthy vessels at the mercy of the waves. Some 13,500 migrants were rescued off Italy in seven days last week while at least 1,500 are known to have perished in the Mediterranean so far this year, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Last year, some 218,000 entered Europe illegally via North Africa, of whom 3,500 died.

Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the UN’s human rights chief, described the EU position as “callous” and called on the bloc to adopt a “more courageous” approach by opening legal channels to enable migrants to enter. In a statement, Mr Hussein said: “Europe is turning its back on some of the most vulnerable migrants in the world and risks turning the Mediterranean into a vast cemetery.”

He added that EU policy consisted of “short-sighted, short-term political reactions pandering to the xenophobic populist movements that have poisoned public opinion”.

The signatories to the letter said EU nations had to look again at opening their doors to the refugee tide. The letter said: “The gloomy backdrop to the tragedy is that there is a lack of safe and legal ways for refugees to access protection in Europe.”