EU must respond to Italy’s refugee crisis

Italy’s plea for help from fellow member states of the European Union to deal with the arrival of refugees to its southern shores must not go unheeded.

It comes in the wake of the sinking of a boat carrying migrants off the coast of the Sicilian island of Lampedusa on Thursday in which hundreds died.

Some 8,400 migrants landed in Italy and Malta in the first six months of this year, almost double the 4,500 who arrived during the first half of 2012.