The EU has laid outs its ambitious new plans to tackle the migrant crisis unfolding in the Mediterranean. The proposals include tripling funding for sea operations as well as country-by-country quota systems for resettling refugees, a controversial issue for some member states.

“The structural long-term objectives (are) obviously solving the root causes of this immense flow of people that is not going to stop tomorrow, and the immediate urgencies: savings lives, taking care of the lives we save…sharing responsibility to protect the people we save, and fighting the traffickers and smugglers organisations,” said EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini during a press conference in Brussels.

The EU plan aims to strike the balance between being tough on returning migrants without a right to stay, and protecting asylum seekers in danger in an effort to persuade sceptical member countries.

This year tens of thousands of migrants have arrived mainly in Italy, Greece and Malta and they