Geneva: The UN on Friday hailed an EU plan to tackle the surge in Mediterranean migrant crossings but urged more focus on the conditions pushing so many to leave their countries.

“With regards to the measures announced in Luxembourg and Brussels this week, UNHCR believe they are an important first step toward collective European action,” Adrian Edwards, spokesman for the UN refugee agency told reporters.

Joint European action “is the only approach that can work” in the Mediterranean, where more than 1,700 people have died since the beginning of the year, he said.

But Edwards said “efforts still need to be made to address the root causes pushing people to flee,” adding that half the people who crossed the Mediterranean last year “were people seeking refuge from wars and persecution.”

EU leaders have decided to triple funds for the bloc’s maritime search and rescue operation, as horrific details continued to emerge of last weekend’s shipwreck that saw hundreds drown in the Mediterranean’s worst migrant disaster.

But they have so far failed to agree to allow boats from its Triton operation to stray beyond European territorial waters to rescue migrants.

“It’s crucial that everyone’s focus is on saving lives, including in the Libyan search and rescue area, which is where most of the distress calls tend to come from,” Edwards said.

Edwards however said Europe had to elaborate what steps it would take to relocate and resettle migrants and provide them access “to international protection in Europe through other legal channels.”

On the issue of migrant relocation, draft proposals leaked before the summit had suggested that member states provide resettlement to 5,000 migrants, but no number was given in the concluding statement.

“UNHCR’s experience is that without realistic and substantial alternative channels for people to reach safety, the much-needed increase in international efforts to crack down on smugglers and traffickers is unlikely to be effective,” he said.

UN rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, meanwhile, slammed an article in British tabloid The Sun which called migrants “cockroaches,” said an “underbelly of racism... has skewed the EU response to the crisis.”

He said the EU Council deliberations on Thursday focussed on “deterrence and on preventing movement at all costs” adding that this risked “making the crisis even worse and could sadly result in further massive loss of life.”

European leaders have decided to seek UN clearance for a military operation against people smugglers.