Over 400 people are believed to have perished as a migrant boat capsized in the Mediterranean Sea near Lampedusa.

This human catastrophe came only days after another tragedy occurred in the area where another 40 people’s lives were claimed.

The departure point was, presumably, Libya. The North African country, which is only 192 nautical miles south of Malta, has been trying to deal with insurgency, along with patrolling its porous desert borders.

It also patrols its coast to deter migrants from undertaking the journey. But it has recently stated that if it does not receive help from the European Union, it will begin to help migrants leave the country and undertake the journey. This is worrying.

We have had both candidates for the European Commission’s top post in Malta and both have said that they will address the issue of burden sharing when it comes to asylum seekers. Christian Democrat Jean Claude Juncker came to Malta and said that there would be no more empty promises on the issue of migration made to Malta. Socialist candidate Martin Schulz also came to Malta and had promised to push for obligatory burden sharing within Europe.

But while we are gearing up to vote in less than two weeks time, there are hundreds of people who are die as they try to make it across to Europe. We have had our own bitter experiences when it comes to tragedies in our waters  and many people have died, sometimes just minutes before our search and rescue boats get there.

Italy said it dispatched its Marum Nostrum task force to try and rescue any survivors, but Italian media reported that many had already drowned. The boat went down some 40 miles off the Libyan coast. The boat was 105 miles south of Lampedusa and 164 south of Malta. The area in question works out to be 36 miles outside Malta’s search and rescue area. Malta was not involved, but it offered assets to help in the operation. It seems to be a case where Italian vessels (and Maltese for that matter) were too far away.

This is not a problem that is going to go away. We keep talking about the solution being to help Africa develop. But we have seen, decade after decade, that Europes’ colonial legacy on the continent has been one of destruction and depriving it of development.

A lot of the money that goes to Africa ends up in corrupt politicians pockets, this much is true. But why are we not honest with ourselves – as Europeans. We are simply pushing people back to their deaths. We have absolutely no control over Africa and what goes on there. But we do have control of what goes on in some of the Mediterranean Sea. More and more people are making these harrowing journeys that so often end up in tragedy.

And for each tragedy that we hear about, how many others are there that we don’t hear about?

Europe needs to act. We are half way through May and the annual exodus has begun. It will not slow down. If anything, it will gain more momentum.