Europe's response - New pact, but underlying causes have not gone away

€20,000 Charge per head for EU member states that refuse to host refugees under a new migration and asylum pact€1bn Value of proposed European aid for Tunisia to rescue state finances and help deal with its migration crisis

- Jon Henley

The deaths of as many as 500 people feared drowned in the sinking of an overcrowded fishing boat off southern Greece have once more thrown a spotlight on the world’s deadliest migratory route – and Europe’s failure to tackle one of its greatest challenges.

Since the International Organization for Migration (IoM) launched its missing migrants project in 2014, an estimated 27,000 people trying to reach Europe have been recorded as dead or disappeared while trying to cross the Mediterranean.

More than 21,000 of those deaths have occurred on the so-called central Mediterranean route from Libya or Tunisia north to Greece or Italy, a crossing that can take several days and is often made in unseaworthy, dangerously overloaded boats.

Most migrants to Greece now cross from Turkey, either reaching the eastern Greek islands by boat or crossing the Evros River along the land border – and their number has fallen sharply since Athens stepped up sea patrols and built a border fence.