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CATANIA. — European Union foreign ministers met yesterday under pressure to produce more than words and save desperate migrants drowning in the Mediterranean, as bodies of the deadliest known wreck of its kind were brought ashore in Malta. The death toll from Sunday’s disaster off the coast of Libya was uncertain, but likely to be the highest in modern times among migrants trafficked in rickety boats across the Mediterranean. Officials said there had been at least 700 people on board, some reportedly locked in the hold. It comes days after another wreck believed to have killed around 400 people.

Hundreds of kilometres to the east, coast guards were struggling to save migrants from another vessel destroyed after running aground off the Greek island of Rhodes.

Greek coast guards said at least three people were killed there. Television pictures showed survivors clinging to floating debris while rescuers pulled them from the waves.

The International Organisation for Migration said three more vessels had sent out distress calls yesterday.

European officials are struggling to come up with a policy to respond more humanely to an exodus of migrants travelling by sea from Africa and Asia to Europe, without worsening the crisis by encouraging more to leave.

An Italian naval operation in the southern Mediterranean, known as “Mare Nostrum”, was cancelled last year because of its cost and domestic opposition to sea rescues that could encourage more migration.

It was replaced in November by a far smaller EU mission with a third of the budget; a decision that seems to have made the journey much deadlier for migrants packed into rickety vessels by traffickers who promise a better life in Europe.

“This is a humanitarian emergency that involves us all,” the International Organization for Migration’s Italy Director Federico Soda said, calling for a mission equivalent to the Italian operation to be relaunched immediately.

Up to 1 500 migrants have already died trying to cross the Mediterranean this year, on course to far exceed the 3 200 people the IOM estimates died making the journey last year, given that the summer peak has not yet begun. Fewer than 100 of last year’s deaths took place before May.

The IOM says more than 21 000 people have made the journey so far this year, comparable to 26 000 by the end of April last year, but with a death toll so far around 15 times as high.

“The reputation of Europe is at stake,” said Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni.

The vessel overturned and sank off the coast of Libya on Sunday when passengers rushed to one side to attract attention from a passing merchant ship. — Reuters.