EUROPEAN UNION interior ministers met today to make a fresh attempt to thrash out new measures for sharing out responsibility for migrants entering Europe without authorisation.

This came the day after more than 1,400 refugees were rescued from the Mediterranean sea off southern Italy.

Europe’s asylum system has long been in a state of collapse, with rising numbers fleeing wars like that in Syria. Under pressure from Italy and other right-led states the EU ended search and rescue operations in 2020.