EU leaders triple funding for search-and-rescue operations in the Mediterranean

A boat filled with migrants. — (Image credit: Twitter.com/CBSNews)

During emergency talks in Brussels on Thursday, European leaders agreed to increase funding for search-and-rescue operations targeting migrant boats in the Mediterranean to €120 million ($130 million).

Germany, France, and Belgium offered ships, and the UK said it would contribute a helicopter carrier, two patrol boats, and three helicopters, the BBC reports. The EU also wants to send immigration officers to non-EU countries and form a plan to seize and destroy boats from smugglers, officials said. "We will take action now," said Dimitris Avramopoulos, the EU's top migration official. "Europe is declaring war on smugglers."

The summit comes after more than 750 people died while crossing the Mediterranean from Libya on Sunday. An estimated 35,000 people have left Africa for Europe this year, and some 1,750 are believed to have died.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.