(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) The European Union and its member states "must hang their heads in shame" following reports this morning that as many as 300 migrants are believed to have died in the high seas off the Italian island of Lampedusa, said the human rights organistaion Amnesty International.

"This new tragedy realises our worst fears about the end of Italy's Mare Nostrum search and rescue operation and exposes the predictable consequences of the European Union's failure to provide an adequate replacement," said John Dalhuisen, Europe and Central Asia Programme Director at Amnesty International.

The EU's operation Triton, dubbed as a replacement to Mare Nostrum, is not focused on search and rescue, does not routinely operate in international waters, and is significantly reduced in scale.

"It's a simple equation - as the number of people taking this perilous sea route goes up and the resources put into search and rescue go down, more people will die," said Dalhuisen.

On Monday 9 February, 29 migrants died, most of them of hypothermia, after Italian coast guards rescued them from an inflatable dinghy carrying 106 people, including children. Reports suggest that the rescue operation was extremely difficult due to severe weather conditions.

"It's possible the Italian coast guards did what they could with the resources they had. They clearly were not enough. Unless EU member states commit to significantly increasing search and rescue capacity in the central Mediterranean, tragedies like these will only multiply," added Dalhuisen.