(Transcript from SBS World News Radio)
The European Union is seeking support from the United Nations for a plan to use the military to stem the crisis of fleeing people taking to the Mediterranean Sea in boats.
The UN refugee agency says around 1,800 people have died so far this year attempting to cross in unseaworthy vessels.
Kristina Kukolja has more.
(Click on the audio tab above to hear the full report)
The boats these people are boarding are no match for the raging seas.
Nor are the passengers a match for the people smugglers, who, more often than not, are seemingly prepared to abandon them to the waves.
The European Union says the number of people trying to reach Europe from North Africa and the Middle East is rising.
And, foreign policy head Federica Mogherini says, so are the deaths at sea.
"2015 looks even worse than the previous year, and consider that, in 2014, 3,300 migrants died trying to enter the European Union by sea, which means that three out of four people who perished crossing the border in the world died in the Mediterranean Sea. Three out of four."
Ms Mogherini told the United Nations Security Council the crisis in the Mediterranean is not only a humanitarian emergency.
She says it is also a security issue, linking people smuggling networks to suspected terrorist activity.
Her words eerily echo the words of some closer to home in Australia.
"The crucial thing for the European Union is destroying the business model of the trafficking and smuggling organisations, making sure that the vessels cannot be used again, making sure that the assets of these organisations are destroyed, destroyed in a larger sense. I think that, on this, on the need to dismantle the model, dismantle the networks and their assets, there is a large, let's say, consensus about the need to act quickly and together."
There has been communication between Australian and European officials regarding Australia's asylum policy.
Ms Mogherini now wants international support for a draft resolution authorising military operations targeting traffickers' boats.
"We decided to step up our efforts to tackle the humanitarian tragedy in the Mediterranean. This includes, also, efforts to disrupt trafficking and smuggling networks, to undertake systematic efforts to identify, capture and destroy vessels before they're used by traffickers, in accordance with international law."
The European Union has come under criticism for leaving Italy to deal alone with rescue and recovery efforts along its coast.
Settlement for those who survive and are granted asylum seeker or refugee status is not being evenly shared between member states.
Now the European Commission is proposing a quota system to distribute those people more evenly.
The International Organisation for Migration's Leonard Doyle has told the BBC he supports the idea.
"For too long, one or two countries, notably Sweden and Germany, have been bearing the load. So, the idea that this is distributed across the European Union has got to be welcomed, given the size of the population of Europe. The more the refugees are distributed amongst the population, obviously, the better, and the less it causes internal problems in countries."
The United Nations says more than 50,000 people have entered Europe by sea this year.
It says over 30,000 have come via Italy as they flee war and poverty in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
The EU has assured the Security Council no asylum seekers or migrants intercepted at sea will be turned back, citing commitments to the Geneva Conventions.
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