Huge pressure on Europe to reinstate search operations after tragedy

Children are carried by rescue workers as migrants arrive via boat at the Sicilian harbor of Pozzallo. Credit: REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi

If this were a war, then what is happening on the Mediterranean would rightly be described as a massacre.

ITV News correspondent John Ray reports from Catania in Sicily:

One survivor of yesterday's sinking, a Bangladeshi man helicoptered to hospital in Sicily last night, has said as many 950 migrants were crammed on board the 66-foot fishing vessel.

There were 200 women and around 50 children. Many were locked below deck. They had no chance of escape.

At terrible cost, Europe's decision to cut search and rescue operations has been proved a catastrophic error.

So what can Europe's leaders do?

The view from Catania in Sicily as people wait for news of survivors. Credit: Twitter/@richardgaisford

There is talk of asking North African nations to patrol their own waters and processing migrants in holding camps there too.

These ideas seem as sea worthy as the rusting deathtraps that attempt the crossing.

Libya is a failed state with a handful of coastguard vessels. How can it be expected to police the Mediterranean when its government cannot tackle the chaos at home?

A child is carried by a rescue worker in Pozzallo. Credit: REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi

There will be huge pressure on Europe's leaders to reinstate full scale search and rescue operations when they meet in emergency session today.

In the wake of so many deaths, those calls will be hard to resist.

But immigration is a politically toxic issues for all Europe. No one wants people to drown, but nor do Europe's austerity ravaged nations want to offer them a home.