Ms Frauke Ossig:

Ms Simpson said much of what I would have said. I will add one point from. I did an interview for Irish media a while ago about the Mediterranean. I said that we have a role there that should not be our role. We should not be on the Mediterranean to save lives because that is the role of those states that border it and that have declared a search and rescue zone. Since Italy and Malta are not fulfilling their role and are not getting sufficient support from the EU to save lives at sea, there is nothing left but for non-governmental organisations to save people's lives because people will leave Libya whenever they have a chance and regardless of whether there is someone on the sea to rescue them. We have seen it with the thousands of people who have drowned in the Mediterranean. They are people who are so desperate to put their families on boats that they do it independently, but it should be our role. It should be the role of the European Union to provide the response that is coming from member states.