EU voices sadness over new migrants' boat tragedy in Mediterranean

EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, Cecilia Malmstrom, said she was following "with sadness and anxiety" rescue operations currently on-going by Maltese and Italian authorities to assist the people from a boat that capsized in the Mediterranean. "Unfortunately the incident has caused new victims," she noted in a statement Friday as media reports said dozens of people are feared to have drowned after the boat carrying over 200 migrants from Africa capsized. "These new horrible events are happening while we still have the shocking images of the tragedy in Lampedusa in our minds," said Malmstrom. Last week more than 300 African migrants drowned when their boat sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa. "In the aftermath of the Lampedusa tragedy we heard solidarity expressions from all EU countries, but these will remain only empty words if they are not followed by concrete actions. I also call on North African countries, in particular Libya, to fight more effectively the criminals who put these people in unseaworthy vessels and organise these journeys of death," she added