Yet another tragedy has occurred in the Mediterrenean sea off the Italian coast with hundreds of people losing their lives.
This has been going on for far too many years and should provoke sorrow and shame, irrespective of the numbers of people involved.
Asilo in Europa commends the efforts of the Italian Coastguard and of all the people engaged in the rescue operations.
At the same time, we ask the EU and Italian Institutions to provide an appropriate answer in terms of international law and human rights respect.
This answer cannot be based on illegal push-backs, nor on agreements with countries with poor human rights record, nor on an increase of Frontex border controls and patroling.
In a time of dramatic crises and historical changes we believe it is completely unrealistic to consider defensive policies to respond to the unavoidable movements of people.
Therefore, in our view it is absolutely needed to widely reconsider the modalities for accessing the international protection procedures in the EU.
We do not want a Common European Asylum System only for the journeys' survivors.