Warships to step up search for migrants

BRUSSELS: British and German warships made ready to sail for waters off Libya as Europe ramped up rescue operations in the Mediterranean after up to 900 desperate migrants drowned last weekend on a boat heading for Italy. Yet hours after European Union leaders agreed in Brussels to treble funding for EU maritime missions and pledged more ships and aircraft, 14 clandestine migrants were killed when a train ploughed into dozens of Somalis and Afghans making their way in darkness along a rail track in a Macedonian gorge. The incident highlighted the variety of routes that growing numbers are taking to escape war and poverty in Asia, Africa and the Middle East and chance their luck in a wealthy region that offers, at best, a chilly welcome. EU governments remain deeply at odds over how to share out the care of those who make it. After the sinking of a packed fishing vessel last weekend nearly doubled the death toll at sea this year to almost 2,000, EU leaders responded to a public outcry by reversing sharp cuts in search and rescue operations '“ though voters' wariness of immigration means few are willing to take in many more refugees. Britain's helicopter-carrying flagship Bulwark, currently near Istanbul, will head for the area between Libya and Italy tomorrow, the government said. However, Prime Minister David Cameron, who is campaigning for re-election in two weeks against anti-immigration populists, stressed that most of those rescued would come to Britain. Germany, favoured destination for many migrants who make it to Europe, said yesterday it would have a frigate and a supply vessel in the area within days to comb the sea for refugees. Nearly 40,000 have made it to Italy so far this year.