[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] on Wednesday urged the EU to put into place a search and rescue operation in the Mediterranean following reports of 400 lives lost at sea. HRW acting deputy Europe and Central Asia director Judith Sutherland stated [HRW report] that if reports from a recent confirmed shipwreck, from which 11 bodies were recovered, are confirmed, the past weekend would be “among the deadliest few days in the world’s most dangerous stretch of water for migrants and asylum seekers.” She went on to say that the number of lives lost would continue to grow if the EU did not intervene by implementing search and rescue operations throughout the area. An estimated 400 people died last weekend while trying to reach Europe, according to Save the Children Italy [advocacy website, in Italian], which based its estimate on statements made by thousands of migrants and asylum seekers rescued by the Italian Coast Guard in the last five days. HRW stated that the issue is further complicated by anti-immigration politics in Italy and the EU, with the leader of Italy’s anti-immigrant Northern League earlier this month demanding that authorities resist requests to aid those seeking asylum, saying that is party would work to prevent arrivals by occupying buildings.

HRW is not the first organization to express concern over this continuing issue. In February Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] acknowledged positive signs [JURIST report] from the European Commission’s announcement on the migration crisis in the Mediterranean but encouraged the commission to develop concrete solutions that protect and save lives. Earlier that month AI criticized the EU’s failure to prevent migration casualties at sea [JURIST report]. The statement came amid reports that as many as 300 migrants may have died off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa that month while attempting to flee adverse conditions in their home countries. According to the rights group, the EU Triton operation, which serves as the replacement for the terminated Italian search and rescue operation, is inadequate to address the pressing issue of increasing numbers of migrants willing to cross treacherous waters to gain entry into the safe borders of the EU.