Italian PM declares war on human traffickers

Amid a tragic surge in the number of migrants losing their lives in the Mediterranean, Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Wednesday declared war on the human traffickers organising the perilous boat journeys.

"We need to be aware that we are fighting a war against human traffickers," Renzi told the Italian Senate or upper house of parliament.

"There is no similar experience in history to the trading of human meat apart from slavery."

His comments came as European Union (EU) leaders were due to hold a summit on Mediterranean migrant crisis following Sunday's boat disaster in which as many as 950 people are feared to have drowned when their boat capsized and sank off the Libyan coast.

It was one of the worst maritime disasters since World War II and many of the victims, including women and children, were locked inside the hull and the middle deck of the 20-metre boat "like rats in a cage", according to one of the 28 survivors of the tragedy.

The boat's Tunisian skipper and another crew member were arrested on charges of multiple manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and people smuggling =when they reached Sicily aboard a coast guard vessel.

In an earlier address to Italy's lower house of parliament, Renzi said he was optimistic that the EU would do more to tackle the Mediterranean migrant crisis in the wake of Sunday's disaster.

"We need a political strategy, which means asking Europe to do more than just agree on a budget," Renzi said.

An EU team should manage asylum requests in Libya amid "a strong presence" of international organisations there aimed at deterring migrants from setting sail, Renzi said.

More than 1,700 migrants have perished in the last week alone attempting to reach Europe from North Africa by boat across the southern Mediterranean.

The number of migrants who lost their lives in the Mediterranean this year is 30 times higher than the same period in 2014,according to the UN refugee agency.

"I hope the (EU) summit is not just a learned club of specialist experts who know all the geopolitical dynamics, but forget to give a response to the pain.

"The lack of a response will suffocate an entire generation that is fleeing, risking their lives and not just to see new places," Renzi stated.

At talks in Luxembourg on Monday, EU ministers agreed on a 10-point plan to double the resources available to its much-criticised maritime border patrol mission Triton. Further measures were due to be discussed at Thursday's summit of EU leaders.

Police in Palermo arrested 15 people on Monday in connection with a smuggling ring they say was masterminded by an Ethiopian and an Eritrean who have made over $110 million from trafficking migrants in the past two years.