Funerals for 24 of more than 800 people killed when a migrant boat capsized on Sunday have been held in Malta
EU leaders meet in Brussels at an emergency summit on the growing migrant crisis in the Mediterranean
1,750 people are known to have died at sea so far this year, a huge rise on the same period last year
Italy says it is "at war" with migrant traffickers, and has urged the EU to take military action
The would-be migrants are attempting to flee war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa
We're wrapping up our live coverage of the emergency EU summit in Brussels, following the recent deaths of hundreds of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe. Thanks for staying with us. You can follow all of the latest updates on the BBC News website.
Syrians, Iraqis, Somalis and Eritreans were among the refugees captured on footage filmed from inside one of the people-smuggling boats. The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has been speaking, external to some of the families who made it safely to shore.
Stuart Hughes
BBC News, Malta
tweets, external: "It left me in pieces. I came here to cry." #malta #migrantcrisis
Paul Adams
BBC News, Sicily
Mbaye Gueye, of the Community of Sant'Egidio, a Christian lay group closely involved in working with migrants in Sicily, says the EU's primary focus on prevention is like a death sentence. "We will just send them to their deaths," he told the BBC.
Simon Wilson
BBC Europe bureaux editor, Brussels
There is obviously some frustration in Brussels with UK Prime Minister David Cameron's approach to this summit. An official from one of the Mediterranean EU countries briefing journalists in the summit press area told us that his country was "…not like the UK".
Mr Cameron, he said, came here with the position: "We will give boats, we will give planes…but in exchange he doesn't want to take in any migrants."
Rear Admiral Chris Parry, a former Nato commander, tells the BBC he would like to see a UN humanitarian zone declared off the Libyan coast.
"Dozens of boats are departing daily from the North African shore, without any control or regulation whatsoever," he says.
"To that end, what I think we should put in place is a United Nations authorised Humanitarian Disaster area, such that we're able to take over the responsibilities of the Libyans for security of life and safety at sea, for as long as this crisis persists."
Despite the recent disasters, hundreds of migrants are continuing to arrive at Italy's small Lampedusa island on a daily basis. These men are waiting patiently to board a ship to be transported to Sicily.
Image source, Getty ImagesPeople smugglers should be intercepted about 40 to 50 miles (64 to 80km) off the Libyan coast and their boats destroyed, Thomas Jakobsson from Sea Marshals Risk Management tells the BBC.
"It needs to be dealt with a lot closer to the Libyan coast, to get the people back, to remove the business from the smugglers. If you remove the business from them, it will stop and you will have less dead bodies, that's how simple it is."
More from MEP Martin Schulz, who said the possibility of destroying human traffickers' vessels was "touched upon" in the EU meeting, warning "we need to check the conditions".
He appeared to dismiss any military option, saying he did not see how it "would help us at this juncture".
Image source, AFPEU Parliament President Martin Schulz said a little earlier in a press briefing that it was unfair for people to criticise the EU "for the inadequacies that have led in this particular case to the disasters".
He said he hoped to get a "significant increase" in the budget for Triton (see 16:46).
But, he added, what is key is for EU states to agree to a fair quota system of legal immigration.
Quentin Sommerville
BBC News
tweets:, external Libya's chaos, rival governments & IS presence mean it is still unable to stop migrants heading out across the Med, even with new EU plan.
Amnesty International's Kate Allen comes down hard on the EU, saying its "response to one of the worst refugee crises since World War Two has been appalling".
Ms Allen has just visited the Italian island of Lampedusa, where she met migrants and coast guard rescuers.
"Everyone I spoke to in the camp had a legitimate reason for leaving their own countries, " she continues, "Europe has a bigger role to play than just closing it's borders".
Many of the rescued migrants currently being held on Italy's small Lampedusa island are now preparing to be transferred to Sicily. Their future status in the EU remains unclear.
Image source, Getty ImagesIllegal migrants have been posing questions on social media sites to glean information on how to safely get to Europe, BBC Monitoring reports.
"How can I travel to Libya from Syria at the present time?" is one of the questions posted on Google Answers' Arabic-language page, with users providing tips on how to evade detection by the European authorities.
At the same time, adverts for scheduled trips from Turkey to countries such as Greece and Italy - with telephone numbers of who to contact - are also visible on several Facebook pages.
The EU has been heavily criticised over its Mediterranean rescue service Triton, which replaced the larger Italian Mare Nostrum operation last year.
Critics say a 10-point action plan agreed on Monday - which envisages an increase in the financial resources and a new campaign to destroy traffickers' boats - does not go far enough.
Ben Wright
BBC Political correspondent, Brussels
says there is a considerable pressure from aid agencies to upgrade the EU's remit and launch a proper search and rescue operation in the Mediterranean.
There is an even bigger question on what to do with migrants once they arrive in Europe, he adds.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron's offer (see 14:35 entry) to send the HMS Bulwark and two border patrol ships "is a big breakthrough," Save the Children's Brendan Cox says. It will put pressure on other EU nations to step up, he continues, but "we need more details on the specifics".
"The litmus test for the meeting as a whole remains whether that beefed up search and rescue mission will be deployed in the timeframe (48 hours) and at the scale (at least three times current budget) that is necessary."
Image source, PAThe BBC's Paul Adams meets teenage boys from West Africa who arrived as unaccompanied minors in Italy and face frustration at the slow pace of bureaucracy and long for their families.
Image source, ReutersThe number of unaccompanied minors reaching Italy has increased recently, officials say
Emotional scenes outside Italy's parliament in Rome, where asylum seekers have gathered to demand freedom of movement and work in Europe.
The thousands of people making the perilous journey across the Mediterranean are fleeing war and poverty and hoping to build better livelihoods in Europe.
Image source, AFPWhat happens to migrants brought to shore?
Lt Keith Caruan, of the Malta Armed Forces, tells BBC World TV they and any evidence are handed over to the local police force, before being processed through immigration officials and later distributed to detention centres.
"There's a whole process that tries to investigate their origins and why they've left," he adds.