18/06/2008 (Agence Europe) - European Immigration Commissioner Jacques Barrot said, on Monday 16 June, that he was deeply concerned by the news that several dozen immigrants had died after the vessel on which they were seeking to gain the coast of Italy and Malta sunk. He pointed out that he had called for a mandate to negotiate with Libya, the country from which most of these illegal migrants depart. “We must engage in firm dialogue with Libya”, he said, regretting that he did not have a negotiating brief to do so. A fishing vessel carrying around 150 illegal immigrants went down in the Mediterranean on 7 June off the Libyan coast and only two of the persons on board survived, the Egyptian Embassy in Libya announced on Tuesday 17 June. (B.C./transl.jl)