Faith Nyasuguta
The UN refugee agency boss has called on Europe to be generous and welcoming to other migrants, just as it has been with refugees from Ukraine, following the death of scores of African migrants at sea.
The development comes after 90 people died in international waters of the Mediterranean sea after setting off from Libya in an overcrowded boat.
According to medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), only four people were rescued from the raft on Saturday.
Filippo Grandi, the UNHCR chief said Europe had hosted Ukrainian refugees “generously and effectively” and should consider the same for all other refugees.
“It must now urgently consider how to apply this to other refugees and migrants knocking, in distress, at its doors,” he tweeted on Sunday.
In recent years, thousands of African migrants have been trying to cross the Mediterranean in search for a better life in Europe.
A fraction manage to reach their destinations but hundreds die every year in the perilous journey in overcrowded, often unseaworthy vessels.
Currently, the European Union is facing criticism for its close cooperation with the Libyan Coast Guard to cut numbers of migrants arriving on European shores.
The desperate migrants face further horrific abuses in Libyan detention centres on their return journey.
