The European Union’s heads of government meeting in Brussels tomorrow and on Friday should urgently adopt measures to improve sea rescues of migrants and asylum seekers trying to reach Europe, Human Rights Watch said today.

The summit should also pledge more measures to facilitate access for refugees from Syria and protect their rights as they increasingly turn to dangerous boat migration, it said.

“EU leaders should move beyond expressions of regret and commit to concrete actions to help prevent more deaths of migrants at sea,” acting deputy western Europe director at Human Rights Watch Judith Sunderland said.

“New proposals for increased monitoring of the Mediterranean need to focus on saving lives, not barring entry to the EU.”

Enhanced efforts to save lives at sea need to go hand-in-hand with respect for other fundamental human rights, such as the right to seek asylum and protection against torture and ill-treatment, Human Rights Watch said. In particular, EU leaders should consider the following steps:

Ensure that increased surveillance of the Mediterranean, including through the new EUROSUR system, is focused on the paramount duty of rescue at sea;

Broaden the circumstances in which a boat is considered to be in distress and its occupants in need of rescue;

Amend the proposed new regulations for Frontex, the EU border agency, to ensure that migrants intercepted or rescued at sea are taken to the closest safe port of call in an EU country;

Adopt binding rules to avoid disputes about disembarkation points to ensure that migrants are taken to a safe port of call in the shortest possible amount of time;

Limit disincentives for private vessels to conduct rescues by ensuring that the people rescued will be allowed to land quickly and by ending the threat of prosecution on charges of abetting irregular immigration; and

Ensure compliance with EU and human rights law against refoulement – that is, returning someone to a country where they face the risk of torture or persecution. Also ensure against returning people to countries where they face the risk of chain deportations to torture or persecution because the countries involved lack asylum systems or other effective remedies against refoulement.

The EU should also undertake longer term measures to address the problem of dangerous migration, such as by developing orderly and legal entry mechanisms for asylum seekers, Human Rights Watch said.

Immigration cooperation with sending and transit countries should be guided by respect for human rights, such as the right to leave any country, the right to seek asylum, freedom from arbitrary detention, freedom from ill-treatment, and, of course, the right to life.