PARIS — A grim succession of shipwrecks and drownings in the Mediterranean Sea this week has highlighted a shift in migrant smuggling operations away from relatively safer routes into Europe and sparked recriminations about whether European governments are doing enough to stem the flow.
The rising death toll spiked Friday with the discovery of more than 100 drowning victims off the Libyan coast, as rescuers searched for survivors of at least two other stricken boats in waters off Crete and Egypt. The new wrecks padded a toll estimated to exceed 1,000 this week.
With 2015 as the deadliest year on record for those who sought passage into Europe by sea, more than 2,500 people have died so far this year, compared with 1,800 in the same period last year, according to the International Organization for Migration.
In the past 10 days alone, the 2016 death toll for migrants attempting to make the central Mediterranean crossing — from North Africa to Europe, typically via Italy and its outer islands — has already doubled. That has shifted the focus of refugee organizations from the shorter, safer Greek route traveled mainly by people from Syria, Iraq and elsehwere in the Middle East to those who are crossingcome from the Maghreb.
For many in Europe and North Africa, the question is why no systematic European Union policy or temporary solution has been put in place to prevent further deaths at sea.
In Libya on Friday, Col. Ayoub Gassim, a spokesman for the Libyan navy, blamed EU leaders, who he said were “doing nothing but counting bodies.” The accusation struck a chord even in Brussels, the EU headquarters, where some critics cited the nature of EU policymaking.
“Everybody knows what needs to be done — an EU border and coast guard agency,” said Marc Pierini, a former EU ambassador to both Libya and Syria.
The EU has a border control agency, called “Frontex.” But it has neither vessels nor surveillance equipment of its own, relying instead on individual EU member states to provide both.
“We are definitely in crisis-management mode only, which is not good for seeing the next crisis coming and getting the proper structures in place,” Pierini said in a telephone interview from Brussels.
“We are dealing with short-termism. And basically putting patches on leaks,” he said. “They talk about keeping the numbers down, as if the numbers are not human beings like you and me.”
An Italian official, on condition of anonymity to discuss E.U. deliberations, said Italy has been pressing its European partners for more than a year to take greater action, such as deploying more ships and other resources, to address the growing number of deaths in the Mediterranean.
Another obstacle is resistance from both the Italian and Greek governments to hosting any substantial, long-term humanitarian aid operations on their shores. The rationale typically stems from a desire to protect their countries from becoming holding pens for migrants who have no claim to EU asylum.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees reported Tuesday that at least 880 migrants and refugees had died trying to cross the Mediterranean in the past week.
As the approaching summer brings warmer weather and better sea conditions, smugglers from North Africa are likely to continue packing migrants into unseaworthy vessels bound for Europe in dangerous conditions.
