The Minister for Foreign Affairs has said the tragedy in Wexford underscores the need for closer co-operation in justice and home affairs matters. Speaking in Brussels, where he was attending a meeting of EU foreign ministers, he said there was a need for co-ordinated action within the EU and its external boundaries.
"Not to create a fortress but to establish clear, reasonable, just and humane rules. We also need to step up our action against those who make obscene profits from human misery through trafficking. Progress is being made. For instance, trafficking in human beings is one of the crimes to which the new European arrest warrant will apply," he said.
Italy is blocking the introduction of the arrest warrant, which will make extradition for certain offences automatic within the EU. Belgium's Prime Minister, Mr Guy Verhofstadt, will hold talks in Rome today with his Italian counterpart, Mr Silvio Berlusconi, who argues that the scope of the warrant is too broad.
The Italian government denies that its misgivings about the warrant were linked to Spanish allegations of financial irregularities against Mr Berlusconi. EU leaders hope to find agreement on the issue when they meet this weekend at the Belgian royal pal ace at Laeken.
The arrest warrant distinguishes between human trafficking and human smuggling, with higher penalties for trafficking. Meanwhile, the shipping agent for Dutch Navigator has denied responsibility for the deaths of the eight stowaways in a container on board the ship. Mr Paul Bertolo of Cobelfret, the Zeebrugge-based shipping agent, told The Irish Times his company was not responsible for checking the contents of containers loaded onto the vessel.
"There are several responsibilities involved in running a ship. In this case, I would say it is the responsibility of the shippers to check if their containers are well secured," he said.
Mr Bertolo said the police and the port authority were responsible for enforcing the law, but he said that Cobelfret was looking at ways to ensure that last week's tragedy would never be repeated.
"We of course feel concerned. We are looking at it of course because if the port authority or other agencies are not doing it, we need to do it," he said. He declined to speculate on how the stowaways entered the container.
And he said suggestions that the container was loaded on to the ship by mistake were nothing more than speculation.
Belgian officials said yesterday it was impossible to examine every container on every ship at every port in the country.
And they blamed the fact that Britain did not issue citizens with identity cards for so many illegal immigrants attempting to cross the English Channel.
