MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The UN Committee on Migrant Workers called for cooperation in saving migrants' lives after more than 1,000 people drowned in the Mediterranean Sea over the past week, the United Nations said in a statement Tuesday.
"We once again express our shock and dismay at the appalling loss of life in the seas between Europe and Africa," Committee Chair Francisco Carrion Mena said.
He stressed that there was no immediate solution to the problem, adding that the countries need to work on real employment opportunities in Europe as well as eliminate "the drivers of poverty and conflict" in Northern Africa.
The Committee urged the European Union to seek short-term and long-term solutions to the migrant crisis ahead of the extraordinary European Council meeting on Thursday.
Earlier on Tuesday, International Organization for Migration said 1,727 migrants have died at sea since the beginning of 2015, over 30 times as many as during the same period in 2014.
On Monday, the EU foreign and interior ministers set out a 10-point package of measures in a bid to ease the crisis.
The meeting convened a day after a deadly ship wreckage reportedly killed up to 800 refugees off the Libyan coast in the Mediterranean. Only 28 people have been rescued in the incident, according to the UN.
The Mediterranean Sea is one of the main routes for migrants fleeing conflicts in Africa and the Middle East for Europe.
