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EU to Tackle Migrant Crisis after Boat Tragedy

CBN

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A ship carrying nearly a thousand migrants capsized in the Mediterranean Seas.  It's believed only 28 people survived.
    
The passengers were mostly from the African nation of Libya and surrounding countries, where fighting has forced them to leave in record numbers. 
    
The vessel was headed to nearby Sicily, which combined with Malta, has received a total of 200,000 people from Africa last year.
    
Journalists and volunteers, including a group of former migrants, gathered in the port of Catania, Sicily, as they waited for the boat bringing the survivors.
    
"Ebrima" is a migrant from the African nation of Gambia and is now a volunteer helping other migrants.
    
"I passed though the same route with them. But it's really, really is a risk. It's very risky, it's very risky," Ebrima said. "So this is what makes me come and see my fellow brothers who passed on the sea that way, the same way which I passed through to come here in Italy."
    
Another volunteer said, "Today we are here in Catania because we want to hug the migrants, the new Europeans that are arriving here in Catania."
    
Meanwhile, European Union foreign ministers gathered for an emergency meeting in Luxembourg on the growing crisis as migrants flee instability in Libya at unprecedented rates. 

Fighting in Libya has escalated to its worst levels since the 2011 civil war that ended with the overthrow and killing of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. 

The country now has rival governments - the internationally recognized one in the eastern city of Tobruk, and an Islamist-backed one in the capital of Tripoli.
    
Italian Premier Matteo Renzi said he will ask his EU counterparts Monday to confront instability in Libya more decisively, but he ruled out ground troops.
 
Renzi also says he will ask for a joint operation targeting smugglers. Some 3,500 died or went missing along the way.

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