DHAKA: Italian prime minister Enrico Letta on Tuesday urged an EU summit this week to adopt an action plan to deal with the ‘immigration emergency’ after two shipwrecks that killed over 400 people.

Europe ‘cannot sit there and watch’ these tragedies, Letta told the Italian parliament, adding, ‘I am hoping for immediate action’, reports The Straits Times.

He called for the EU’s Frontex border agency to be bolstered, the Eurosur patrol programme to be implemented sooner than its scheduled start date of December, along with the action plan.

Eurosur links different EU border patrol agencies and helps them communicate with each other and share satellite and surveillance drone data.

BDST: 1634 HRS, OCT 22, 2013
RoR/GCP