The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has called on Egypt and other North African and European States to work together and bring to justice the smugglers who rammed a boat full of migrants earlier this month, killing up to 500 people.

Calling the incident “mass murder”, Zeid condemned the “callous act of deliberately ramming a boat full of hundreds of defenceless people”, saying it “is a crime that must not go unpunished.”

“This is a truly horrendous incident,” Zeid said, adding “it is the duty of States to investigate such atrocious crime (and) bring the perpetrators to justice.”

The UN Human Rights Chief went on to call for a concerted effort by the international community to tackle the root causes of such tragedies.

“Far too many refugees and migrants are dying all across the world in an effort to flee conflict, systematic political oppression and human rights violations, including economic deprivation. These root causes in their countries of origin must be tackled in a concerted manner,” Zeid said.

He went on to highlight in particular the conflict in Syria and the impact it has had on asylum seeker migration into Europe, saying,

“The largest and fastest-growing group of people claiming asylum in Europe in 2014 are Syrians – a clear manifestation of the deplorable failure to bring that conflict to an end, and of increasing pressures, frustrations and loss of hope on the part of the more than 3 million Syrian refugees, the great majority of whom are still in over-burdened neighbouring States.”

See more of his comments here.