European Union leaders held an extraordinary summit in Brussels April 23, 2015.

European Union leaders have taken a decision to henceforth engage in systematic efforts to identify, capture and destroy traffickers’ ships before they are used to transport clandestine migrants from Africa and Asia to Europe. This is one of the major resolutions of the extraordinary summit of European leaders in Brussels, Thursday, April 23, 2015, International Business Times report.

Thursday’s extraordinary summit that came on the heels of the meeting of European Union Foreign Ministers was provoked by the persistent drowning of African and Asian migrants as they struggle to get to Europe at all costs with the recent incident being the drowning of more than 800 migrants off the coast of Libya on Sunday, April 19, 2015 when their boat capsized. The talks of the leaders focused on the 10-point action plan the ministers proposed.

To prevent more deaths. Statistics indicate that more 200,000 migrants have successfully reached Europe via boat over the past 15 months. Another 5,000 are believed to have died trying, of which 1,700 perished in the first four months of 2015 only. The European Union Border Agency Chief is said to have warned last March that up to one million people are expected to attempt crossing the Mediterranean from Libya before the end of 2015.

Donald Tusk, EU President urged the 28-nation bloc "to agree on very practical measures," such as "strengthening search-and-rescue possibilities, by fighting the smugglers and by discouraging their victims from putting their life at risk, while reinforcing solidarity," International Business Times quoted.

Prior to the summit, the United Nations Organisation and the International Organisation  for Migration urged the EU to begin a sea rescue operation for migrants and accept significantly more refugees. International Organization for Migration Chief William Lacy Swing, U.N. Special Representative for Migration, Peter Sutherland and U.N. Human Rights and Refugee Agency heads, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein and António Guterres  are quoted to have said in a joint statement that, "The European Union response needs to go beyond the present minimalist approach... which focuses primarily on stemming the arrival of migrants and refugees on its shores."