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UN Appalled by Ship Crews Abandoning Migrants in Mediterranean

© Flickr / Niklas-BItalian rescuers boarded a merchant ship, with as many as 450 migrants, lost in rough waters off the coast southeast of Italy, the BBC reports.
Italian rescuers boarded a merchant ship, with as many as 450 migrants, lost in rough waters off the coast southeast of Italy, the BBC reports. - Sputnik International
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The United Nations said in a statement Friday that the abandoning of a ship with 450 migrants on the same day was "the latest cynical chapter in the ongoing tragedy of irregular migration at sea that has resulted in 3,000 reported deaths in the Mediterranean alone in 2014".

Italian rescuers boarded a merchant ship, with as many as 450 migrants, lost in rough waters off the coast southeast of Italy, the BBC reports. - Sputnik International
Italian Rescuers Save Abandoned Ship With 450 Migrants on Board
UNITED NATIONS, January 3 (Sputnik) – The United Nations has expressed concern over the emerging trend of ships smuggling migrants across the Mediterranean, being abandoned by their crews, following the latest such incident off Italy's coast.

The United Nations said in a statement Friday that the abandoning of a ship with 450 migrants on the same day was "the latest cynical chapter in the ongoing tragedy of irregular migration at sea that has resulted in 3,000 reported deaths in the Mediterranean alone in 2014".

On Friday, UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson held discussions with UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for International Migration and Development Peter Sutherland and Director General of the International Organization for Migration William Swing.

The Italian Coast Guard commandeered a Moldovan-flagged refugee-laden freighter which was on course to crash into the Italian coast - Sputnik International
Refugee-Laden Ship Commandeered by Italian Coast Guard Docks in Gallipoli

According to the UN statement, they "discussed international migration and the emerging appalling trend in the human trafficking of migrants – the abandonment of larger cargo ships by traffickers in the Mediterranean".

Praising ongoing rescue efforts, in particular by the Italian Navy and Coast Guard, the United Nations said Deputy Secretary-General Eliasson emphasized the responsibility of all UN member-states "to ensure the protection and human rights of migrants", stressing that there was an urgent need to address the root cause of the problem.

Earlier this week, over 700 migrants, most believed to be from Syria, were rescued by the Italian coast guard, after the crew abandoned the ship and left it to sail on autopilot.

According to the United Nations, the number of reported migrant deaths in the Mediterranean has increased by over four times since 2013.

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