EU holds emergency summit as deaths at sea mount
歐盟緊急會議商討移民問題

EU leaders are set to backtrack on a policy of limiting rescue operations of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea. Public outrage over the deaths peaked, after up to 900 migrants died on Sunday when their boat sank off Libya.

That disaster raised the death toll to around 1,800 so far this year. Last year, Italy shut down its rescue missions because other EU countries refused to help pay for the operations. Those efforts were replaced with a smaller EU force whose main focus is to patrol the bloc's borders.

A senior EU diplomat says the leaders are likely to agree to double the cash and equipment available to two EU border patrol missions in the Mediterranean at an emergency summit on Thursday. The area of operations for the operations are also likely to extend close to the North African coast.