European Parliament President
Martin Schulz said Thursday EU leaders must commit more to sea
rescues and less to a militarized solution to the migrant
humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean.
"I don't see how the military can neutralized (people
traffickers') boats," Shulz said on the margins of an emergency
EU summit to discuss the migrants' plight after Sunday's
shipwreck in which some 700 people are feared dead.
Schulz said traffickers' boats should be sought out and
destroyed via international police operations, including
investigation, wiretapping and surveillance.
On the humanitarian front, "we need far larger financial
commitments, ships and manpower than those currently being
debated".
Schulz went on to call for "an intervention in the style of
Mare Nostrum" - Italy's search-and-rescue operation that saved
tens of thousands of lives between October 2013 and October
2014.
"I hope this (emergency) council will bring about results
in this direction," he said.
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