UN Urges EU Maritime Patrols to Refocus on Saving Lives After Sea Tragedy

The UN statement was released after around 300 migrants from western Africa died while trying to navigate four dingy boats across the sea to Italy.

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) – Following the deaths of hundreds of migrants in the Mediterranean earlier in the week, the UN Refugee Agency said Thursday that EU search-and-rescue operations should be more about saving lives than patrolling borders.

"The focus has to be about saving lives. We need a robust search and rescue operation in the Central Mediterranean, not only a border patrol," the UN's refugee commissioner Antonio Guterres said in a statement published on the agency's website.

The statement was released after around 300 migrants from western Africa died while trying to navigate four dingy boats across the sea to Italy.

"There can be no doubt left after this week's events that Europe's Operation Triton is a woefully inadequate replacement for Italy's Mare Nostrum," the UN refugee official stressed.

LATEST: “The focus has to be about saving lives" New statement from HC Guterres on the week's events #ProtectionatSea http://t.co/5a4kDYoBsH

— UN Refugee Agency (@Refugees) 12 февраля 2015

In October 2013, Italy saw a major boat disaster off its southern Island of Lampedusa result in the deaths of more than 360 people. Rome responded by launching the Mare Nostrum operation, but scrapped it last November after coming in for criticism that Italy's vigorous search for refugees encouraged migration.

The UN refugee authority has repeatedly expressed concerns over the removal of Mare Nostrum without a similar European search-and-rescue operation to replace it. The European Union now runs a joint operation called Triton, which is focused on defending EU maritime borders.