UN chief calls for enhanced efforts to combat migration crisis

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon urged European Union leaders to exert more effort to save the lives of migrants risking their lives in the attempt to cross the Mediterranean Sea to reach the coasts of Europe.

Ban made his remarks on Tuesday in Dublin before traveling to Brussels, where he will be separately received by Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, Donald Tusk, head of the European Council, and Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, reports Efe.

In the Irish capital, where he arrived on Sunday for a brief visit, Ban argued for urgent action to put an end to the humanitarian migration nightmare.

He called on EU leaders to address the issue in a more comprehensive and collective manner, calling for reinforcement rescue missions in the Mediterranean, the Andaman Sea and in Syria.

Ban recalled that developed countries have an obligation to identify the causes driving thousands of people to risk their lives through en masse migration, and to seek solutions in their countries of origin.

Following a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, Ban appealed to EU leaders, pushing for an action plan: "I know that the Irish government has dispatched a naval vessel and that I really appreciate, and this should be shared collectively by European countries. It should not be borne by just one or two countries who are affected, and with that, I highly commend this European Agenda on Migration."