New York - A senior official at the International Organisation for Migration asked the European Union (EU) to spare no effort to help in protecting migrants stranded in Libya and to convince its member states to share the burden of caring for refugees who are trying to reach Europe. Eugenio Ambrosi, EU director at the IOM, the United Nations' migration body, was speaking before a summit of EU leaders next week that is due to discuss efforts to stop African migrants from traveling to Europe from Libya and to seek a way out of their stalemate over the hosting of asylum seekers. "There is an effort, and that should be increased, to ensure and improve the level of protection of the migrants that are currently in Libya," Ambrosi told Reuters in an interview late on Wednesday. Ambrosi put the total number of migrants currently in Libya at 800,000. He said the IOM had flown 4,600 migrants home from Libya so far this year and aims to increase that to 12,000. The Libya-Italy route is now the one most heavily used by people trying to reach Europe. The United Nations says more than 1,850 have perished in the Mediterranean this year trying to make the crossing.
