by Our Foreign Desk

EUROPEAN Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker sternly warned EU leaders yesterday to up their efforts to end the Mediterranean refugee crisis.

The leaders had promised last month to provide hundreds of millions of euros for Syrian refugees and to help Africa better manage its borders, as well as to fund experts to fingerprint and screen new arrivals in Italy and Greece.

But Mr Juncker said he was still waiting and insisted that EU member states had to do what they promised.

“We can, and must, do much better,” said EU president Donald Tusk, adding that the crisis could deepen.

“The situation in Syria is deteriorating.”

In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told parliament that more should be done to help Turkey deal with the flow of refugees.

“Without doubt Turkey plays a key role in this matter,” she said. “Because with more than 2 million refugees it currently bears the main burden of the flight from Syria.”

In Italy, UN secretary-general Ban Ki Moon said that all migrants — not just political refugees — deserved protection, help and support.

He told a joint session of the Italian parliament that “refugees do have special rights under international law, but all migrants must have human rights protections.”

Greek coastguards recovered seven bodies yesterday, including those of three children and a baby, and were searching for another missing person after a wooden boat carrying refugees collided with a patrol boat and sank during a rescue operation near the eastern Aegean island of Lesbos.