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12 February 2015 The top United Nations official for refugee issues today urged the European Union (EU) to change its approach to dealing with irregular crossings of the Mediterranean Sea and make saving lives the topmost priority following the death earlier this week of some 300 people fleeing Libya on four dinghies.

If not, it is inevitable that many more people will die trying to reach safety in Europe, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antnio Guterres warned in a press release issued today by his Office (UNHCR).

There can be no doubt left after this weeks events that Europes Operation Triton is a woefully inadequate replacement for Italys Mare Nostrum, said Mr. Guterres was referring to the deaths this week of at least 300 people who were trying to reach Europe from Libya on four dinghies.

The focus has to be about saving lives, he said. We need a robust search-and-rescue operation in the Central Mediterranean, not only a border patrol.

Earlier this week, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Franois Crpeau, said asylum-seekers and migrants will continue to arrive and stay in Europe no matter what and that migrants will continue arriving despite all efforts to stop them, at a terrible cost in lives and suffering if nothing else is put in place.

Last year, the number of people risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean on smugglers boats rose dramatically and many of them were fleeing conflicts or persecution in Syria, the Horn of Africa and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, according to UNHCR.

In all, at least 218,000 people crossed the Mediterranean and 3,500 lives were lost.

Italy, following heavy loss of life in two incidents on the high seas in October 2013, launched the Mare Nostrum operation rescuing tens of thousands of people. UNHCR has repeatedly expressed concern about the ending of Mare Nostrum late last year without a similar European search-and-rescue operation to replace it.

Last November, the EU border agency Frontex launched Operation Triton, which focuses on border surveillance but can contribute to rescue efforts.

Concerned that Europes response to such tragedies is not to step up its rescue efforts, but to phase them out, Mr. Guterres called on the EU to urgently establish a search-and-rescue operation similar in scale and reach to Mare Nostrum.

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European Union needs robust search-and-rescue operation at sea UN refugee agency

Greece the European Union
Taking into account two opposing and perhaps competing views, Greek journalist Yannis Palaiologos explains why some believe Greece should embrace the Eur...

By: Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs

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Greece & the European Union - Video

The Flower Industry
Kenya #39;s earnings from flower exports to the European Union dropped by three percent to fourty five billion shillings last year. The head of the delegation of the European Union to Kenya,...

By: Kenya CitizenTV

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The Flower Industry - Video

Ukraine peace talks in Minsk #39;A chance that cannot be missed #39;
The European Union #39;s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini has told MEPs in Strasbourg that Wednesday #39;s Ukraine peace talks represent "a chance that cannot be missed". She was speaking on...

By: Euronews in English

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Ukraine peace talks in Minsk 'A chance that cannot be missed' - Video

The European Union's response to the Ukrainian crisis

Video Statement by EU High Representative/Vice President Federica Mogherini on Ukraine to the European Parliament, 10 February 2014

Statement can be viewed here: http://bit.ly/1IMhqZR

Extract on Ukraine from a Speech by High Representative/Vice-President Mogherini

at Munich Security Conference, 8 February 2014

.. Let me try to say how I think the European Union can contribute to addressing the many challenges (and the few opportunities) we face and hopefully trying to make the opportunities more than the challenges.

First, by focusing on our immediate and wider neighbourhood. I am convinced that, as Europeans, we can only expect to be a credible global player if we act as a responsible power at our doorstep. Our priority are the many challenges that are most immediate and most urgent. We stand side by side with our partners and friends in the region, in defence against those that seek to undermine their values, their aspirations, their sovereign choices. We support their state building projects, their democratisation, economic reforms, as well as their European and regional integration. It is both a responsibility dictated by history and an interest dictated by geography.

And we do that together, north and south, east and west of the European Union, united. As we know very well our strength comes from a balanced mix of diversity and unity. And because we all know that we can't afford the luxury of choosing which crisis we want to deal with. The conflicts around us are many and don't queue up: we have to work on all of them, all at the same time, all of us together, to the east and to the south.

To our east, on European territory, the conflict in Ukraine has carried an unsustainable price in human lives, has shown us that one of the basic principles of international law - the respect of country's territorial integrity and sovereignty, and that you don't change borders by force - can be violated. An extremely dangerous precedent, not only for Europe but for the rest of the world as well.

What is our response? What is our action to stop the conflict and restore the respect of international law?

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The European Union's response to the Ukrainian crisis