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00:00 For more on the story, I'm joined by our International Affairs Editor, Angela Diffley.
00:04 Angela, first of all, what's the latest in regards to this tragedy?
00:08 Well, today, nine suspects, all from Egypt, are to appear before Greek magistrates in
00:18 Greece.
00:19 They are to be charged with manslaughter and many of them will enter not guilty, please.
00:27 Some of them, their lawyers say, are victims themselves.
00:30 That's what's happening today in Greece.
00:32 Meanwhile, Pakistan has arrested 14 people, detained 12, again, suspects of people trafficking.
00:41 On this boat, there were a large number of people from Pakistan, as well as predominantly
00:47 Egypt and Libya.
00:49 So that's the makeup of the people.
00:52 Search and rescue attempts are still underway.
00:56 We do not know how many people might be in the sea, might have drowned, how many bodies
01:01 might be found, how many survivors might conceivably be found.
01:05 There are so many conflicting reports about what was going on on that ship.
01:10 And of course, there are conflicting versions about what happened just before the ship went
01:15 down, or the boat went down.
01:18 The Greek coast guards, of course, initially said that they offered help and that people
01:23 on board said, no, we want to get to Italy, they refused help.
01:26 The Greek coast guards said it was moving.
01:30 There are reports now that it was stationary for some time, that it was being towed by
01:34 another boat and that it was in distress for some considerable time.
01:39 So it's very unclear exactly what happened.
01:41 The United Nations has called for an investigation to try to find out what happened, but it is
01:48 a terrible tragedy.
01:50 And this isn't the first time something like this has happened in the Mediterranean, is
01:54 it Angela?
01:55 So does Europe indeed have a plan?
02:00 This has been going on for years.
02:03 It is very difficult to know how to deal with this constant influx of people coming in from
02:11 around the world, particularly to Europe's southern shores.
02:15 There was a meeting on the 8th of June in Luxembourg to try and get a handle on this.
02:21 The frontline countries, of course, Italy and Greece, have most people arriving at their
02:27 shores.
02:28 So it's important to try to have a system which separates economic migrants from genuine
02:34 refugees.
02:35 One of the things which is likely to happen, all of this has to go through the European
02:38 Parliament and isn't even yet a full deal, but they are reaching agreement.
02:43 There is an idea to have a much more fast processing system for people arriving from
02:48 countries which are deemed not to be dangerous, for example, perhaps Albania.
02:53 That will be a much quicker procedure.
02:56 For the rest, the problem is not so much countries taking in genuine refugees.
03:02 Many countries are willing and happy to play their part in what is an international problem.
03:07 The problem is processing.
03:10 And so the idea is that rather than Greece and Italy being overwhelmed, that at least
03:15 30,000 of these processing processes will take place in non-frontline countries.
03:23 So Germany, for example, will offer to do some.
03:27 And so that the processing will not all take place on those frontline Mediterranean countries.
03:32 For those countries within the European Union who have resisted doing this and who do not
03:36 want to take refugees, for example, some of the Eastern European, Central European countries
03:41 who have taken very many refugees in the past and particularly from Ukraine recently, they
03:47 can opt to pay 20,000 euros per migrant that they are not taking.
03:52 That's a possibility.
03:53 Other avenues being explored are linking trade deals, Europe linking its trade deals to countries
04:00 promising to accept back failed asylum seekers from their countries because only one in five
04:06 failed asylum seekers are taken back by their home country.
04:11 The other possible avenue is safe third countries being migrants who are unsuccessful being
04:17 sent to safe third countries.
04:19 So it's moving.
04:20 Angela Diffley, thank you.