Photo: REUTERS/MOAS/Darrin Zammit Lupi/Handout via Reuters

The migrant crisis in the Mediterranean continues to grow more grave. Last week, we posted about the drowning of 400 migrants in an overloaded ship which capsized not long after leaving port in Libya bound for Italy.  On Sunday, a larger ship sank under similar circumstances. 900 are believed to have died. Several other boats and ship were also in danger of foundering today.

The escalating crisis comes as conditions in Libya, Eritrea, Iraq and Syria, in particular, have worsened, causing more refugees to flee, even as the European Union has cut back on rescue services.  The Mare Nostrum program run by the Italian Navy which ended in December has been replaced by the Operation Triton run by Frontex, the EU border control agency. Mare Nostrum cost € 9 million per month, while the much smaller Triton has committed € 2.9 million.

As an estimated 500,000 refugees are waiting for boats to cross the Mediterranean, the escalating body count has cause many to question the cutback in rescue capacity. The EU is proposing a doubling of the budget, which critics have suggested may not be enough.

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