Following the latest disaster involving migrants, north of the Libyan coast, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras made an appeal to the European Union governments, on Sunday (19.04) that they should come up with an urgent plan for handling a mounting migrant humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean.

"None of us can stand by passively when hundreds of souls are lost in the Mediterranean, in their effort to escape war and poverty. Europe can not cite the foremost value of human life unless it takes action to stop this continuing tragedy. To stop the Mediterranean being a graveyard-sea and the European countries of the south being warehouses of human souls," Tsipras said in a statement.

He added "I sent an urgent plea to the governments of EU member-states to immediately form a cohesive plan to deal with the humanitarian crisis we are up against."

The Greek premier also said that he had spoken on the telephone with his counterpart in Italy, Renzi, in order to express his support for his proposal to immediately convene an urgent European Council on the issue.


Greek News Agenda: Migrant Freighter Towed to Safety; Initial Reception Units for Undocumented Migrants