Capsized migrants died off coast of Greece

Twelve asylum-seekers have been found dead after their boat capsized off an island in the Ionian Sea, western Greece.

A coastguard search operation rescued 15 migrants who were on board the stricken boat. The rescue mission continued throughout the night as coast guard personnel desperately searched for further possible survivors.

It is presumed that the migrants might have been heading to Italy.

Thousands of refugees, mainly from sub-Saharan countries and war-torn Syria, have made the treacherous journey across the Mediterranean in an effort to start a new life in Italy and Malta before making the journey up north, however a series of tragedies in the Mediterranean have led to humanitarian groups calling for concrete measures to rectify the situation.

On October 11, around 200 migrants died when a boat laden with 250 asylum seekers capsized 61 nautical miles south off Lampedusa, while a week before, around 300 migrants drowned in another shipwreck off the Italian island.

The influx of migrants has been a hotly debated issue during recent months but it reached its boiling point following the recent humanitarian tragedies. Often traveling on rickety and crowded boats, asylum-seekers have been met both with sympathy as well as exasperation while traveling in hazardous conditions.

However, the influx of migrants, particularly in southern European countries, has been described as 'unsustainable' with critics calling for all countries to shoulder the influx of refugees.

Malta and Greece previously discussed a number of concrete measures to address the influx of asylum-seekers. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and his Greek counterpart Antonis Samaris agreed to adopt a common front regarding illegal migration.

During a recent meeting between the two prime ministers, Samiris echoed Malta's call for Europe to adopt a more coherent returns policy and to repatriate asylum seekers if they do not qualify for asylum. On his part, Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta also called for Europe to impose concrete measures to alleviate the influx of migrants and to enforce burden-sharing laws.

According to UNHCR figures, 2013 represents one of the largest movements of migrants across the Mediterranean, with the numbers accelerating fast. More than 4,600 left Libya in September, compared to 755 in the same month last year. Of the 32,000 who have landed in Italy this year so far, 7,500 are Syrian and a further 7,500 Eritrean.