BBC地中海非法移民偷渡：马耳他为沉船遇难者举行葬礼.docx

Mediterranean migrants crisis: Funerals held in Malta for sinking victimsFunerals for 24 people killed in the worst ever recorded capsizing of a migrant boat in the Mediterranean have been held in Malta.More than 800 people died in Sundays disaster. Italian police say the captain crashed the boat by mistake against a merchant rescue ship.The number of deaths in such incidents has now reached 1,750 so far this year.EU leaders are holding an emergency summit later to find ways to stem the number of people risking their lives.One of the 24 coffins, holding the body of a teenage boy, was whiteAt the scene: Stuart Hughes, BBC News, MaltaThe 24 men laid to rest here were mourned, even though their names are unknown.Their plain, dark wood coffins were slowly carried from the hospital mortuary on the shoulders of members of Maltas armed forces, along a route lined with bouquets of flowers.Migrants who themselves made the perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea in search of a better life joined Maltese government officials and international representatives in a white marquee erected on the helicopter pad outside Vallettas Mater Dei hospital.As the coffins were set down on a red carpet, women from Somalia, Eritrea and other parts of Sub-Saharan Africa wept openly, wiping away tears with their headscarves.During a 45-minute service of remembrance, the Bishop of Gozo, Monsignor Mario Grech, and Imam Mohammed El Sadi read extracts from the Bible and the Koran.Imam El Sadi said all those who had died were brothers before God. He told the congregation that all people were migrants and that life was a journey.Monsignor Grech said the men were fellow human beings, regardless of creed, nationality or race.With no known families to return their remains to, the men will be buried in common graves in Maltas Addolorata Cemetery.More than 21,000 people are estimated to have reached Italy alone this year.The EUs border agency Frontex says 13,000 people have also crossed to EU countries in the eastern Mediterranean this year, primarily Greece, with another 1,800 reaching Spain.The EU summit later on Thursday will discuss a 10-point action plan to prevent more deaths, including increasing Frontexs resources and extending the EUs Mediterranean rescue service.A pilot project to offer 5,000 places for resettlement for migrants qualifying for protection has also been mooted.Senior UN officials have described the plan as minimalist and called for creation of legal channels for safe migration, including for low-skilled migrant workers.They also called on politicians to combat racist and xenophobic rhetoric vilifying migrants and refugees.Other proposals circulated ahead of the EU meeting include systematic efforts to identify, capture and destroy vessels before they are used by traffickers, fingerprinting all migrants, and aiding the formation of a stable government in Libya.What major EU players sayItaly wants the EU to double resources for maritime and border controls, a system for processing migrants on the ground in Africa, a fairer distribution of genuine refugees within the EU and military action against the traffickers in the Mediterranean, similar to the anti-piracy operation in the Horn of AfricaGreece has proposed a plan to improve existing search-and-rescue operations, sharing the burden of settling the refugees more equally among EU countries, and it wants the EU to take a more active role in conflict resolution in Syria, Libya and IraqFrance wants to focus on controlling migration flows - President Francois Hollande says the emphasis should be on disrupting people traffickersGermany also says that the problem needs to be treated at the source; it is noncommittal about whether rescue measures should be boosted, fearing it could encourage traffickingSweden - which has previously sent surveillance ships and planes to the Mediterranean to look out for migrant ships, says it is prepared to do so againThe EU had been criticised over the scope of Triton, its Mediterranean rescue service which replaced the larger Italian operation Mare Nostrum last year.Some EU members had said Mare Nostrum was too expensive and expressed concerns that it was encouraging more migrants.But human rights group Amnesty International said the decision to end Mare Nostrum had contributed to a dramatic increase in migrant and refugee deaths.The UNs High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres has also said the absence of rescue operations has not reduced but rather increased the number of people wh