UN: Migrant, refugee death toll in Mediterranean tops 1,000 for 6th year

More than 1,000 migrants and refugees have died in the Mediterranean Sea this year, the sixth year in a row that this "bleak milestone" has been reached, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

The UN refugee agency UNHCR called for European Union (EU) member states to reactivate search and rescue operations and acknowledge the crucial role of aid groups' vessels in saving lives at sea.

"The tragedy of the Mediterranean cannot be allowed to continue," Charlie Yaxley, spokesman of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said in a statement.

The bodies of five migrants were found on Morocco's Atlantic coast near Casablanca on Monday, bringing to 12 the number killed when their boat capsized on Saturday, the state news agency reported.

The EU struck a deal with Ankara in 2016 to cut off refugee and migrant flows to Greece from Turkey. Departures, now...