Awareness up in EU on immigrant crisis

(ANSA) - Luxembourg, April 20 - A new political willingness has emerged to embrace the idea that the European Union and the United Nations must take up initiatives to combat human trafficking, said Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni speaking after an extraordinary foreign and home affairs ministers' meeting held Monday to debate recent events in the Mediterranean.
    On the night between Saturday and Sunday, a migrant boat capsized off the coast of Libya, with a victim toll feared to be as high as 900, resulting in a Mediterranean disaster that EU sources said was a "game changer" requiring "clear and substantive" moves and an end to finger-pointing. "There's a greater awareness, finally, in Europe (on human trafficking)," said Gentiloni, who also thanked Federica Mogherini, the European Union's high representative for foreign affairs, for also contributing to this new awareness.