Europe migrant crisis in spotlight at UN

Europe's migrant crisis was set to be in focus at the UN late yesterday with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon seeking to muster a global response to the exodus of vast numbers of people from Syria and elsewhere.

The UN chief opened the General Assembly in New York this week with a call to Europe "to do more" and appealing to the international community to tackle the source of the problem.

"We should not be building fences or walls, but above all we must look at root causes, in countries of origin," said Ban, due later yesterday to host a meeting of around 70 countries on the crisis in New York.

In the latest reminder of the dangers, Greek police said yesterday that a woman and a child drowned off the island of Lesbos after their boat sank, although 45 others were rescued.

An Eritrean man was also killed by a train near the entrance to the Channel Tunnel in France near Calais -- where some 3,000 migrants are camped -- early yesterday, an official said, the 13th such death there since June.

According to the latest figures from the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) yesterday, Syrians made up 55 percent of the 521,000 migrants to have crossed the Mediterranean bound for Europe this year to date.