'We are asking for a public inquiry' into migrant deaths at sea: European Ombudsman

More than 600 people were killed in the Adriana tragedy – a humanitarian disaster that dozens of officials and coast guard crews watched unfold over 15 hours, but failed to prevent. The EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, described the incident as "one of the worst shipwrecks in this century worldwide".

More than 27,000 people have lost their lives since 2014 trying to make the treacherous Mediterranean crossing to Europe in shoddy boats, mostly from Northern African ports, according to the International Office of Migration. Fatalities are reported on a near-daily basis, as migrants continue to entrust their lives to ruthless smugglers in a bid to reach Europe, braving a gauntlet of ever-tighter European policies aimed at deterring them.

O'Reilly's inquiry took aim at what it described as conflicting impulses at the heart of the mission of Europe's border security agency, Frontex. "There is obvious tension between Frontex's fundamental rights obligations and its duty to support Member States in border management control," the report said. "Cooperating with national authorities when there are concerns about them fulfilling their search and rescue obligations risks making the EU complicit in actions that violate fundamental rights and cost lives."

O’Reilly told FRANCE 24 that the Adriana tragedy had sparked a broader reflection on the EU's commitment to preventing maritime disasters. She recalled the words of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, during a September 2020 address to the European Parliament, that "saving lives at sea is not optional". "On a wider level," O'Reilly said, "we are asking for a public inquiry not into the Adriana as such, but into all of the deaths, the thousands of