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'Horrified' UN Chief Calls For Refugee Action

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has said he is "horrified and heartbroken" by the latest migrant deaths at sea and on land.

His response comes after it emerged 71 people, including children, appeared to have suffocated in an abandoned lorry in Austria, while around 200 people were feared drowned when two boats capsized off Libya.

The deaths highlight the dangers faced by migrants trying to get to Europe, even if they survive perilous voyages at the hands of traffickers.

Mr Ban said that a "large majority" of people undertaking such dangerous journeys are refugees who have the right to "protection and asylum", and called on all governments to act with compassion and humanity.

He also said the conflicts and repression that force people to flee must be resolved.

"The Syrian war, for example, has just been manifested on a roadside in the heart of Europe," he said.

He revealed that a "special meeting devoted to these global concerns" would take place on 30 September during the annual General Assembly of world leaders at UN headquarters.

According to new figures by the International Organisation for Migration, over 332,000 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean Sea this year to reach Europe.

That number includes over 218,000 who landed in Greece and over 111,600 who reached Italian shores, the intergovernmental agency said.

At least 2,636 people have died in the attempt, it added.

In the latest disaster off the coast of Libya, two overcrowded vessels packed with an estimated 450 migrants sank on Thursday after leaving the Libyan port of Zuwara - a major launchpad for smugglers.

The migrants were from sub-Saharan Africa, Pakistan, Syria, Morocco and Bangladesh, an official said.

In Austria, of the 71 migrants found dead in the lorry , 59 were men, eight were women, and four were children, including a girl estimated at 1-2 years old and three boys aged between 8 and 10.

A Syrian travel document was found among the victims but more time is needed to determine whether people of other nationalities were on board, police chief Hans Peter Doskozil told a news conference.

He later said that authorities had found several mobile phones among the corpses, and were hoping these could help identify the victims.

Four people have been arrested in Hungary in connection with the deaths. Of those arrested in Hungary, three are Bulgarian and a fourth is of Afghan nationality.

Authorities believe a Bulgarian-Hungarian trafficking ring is responsible.

An Austrian motorway patrol discovered the abandoned truck near the Hungarian border on Thursday, probably at least 24 hours after it had been parked there.

The refugees appeared to have been dead for up to two days and fluids from the decomposing bodies were seeping from the lorry's door.

The vehicle belongs to a company called Mastermobiliker Ltd, which has been under bankruptcy proceedings since July 2014, according to a Hungarian company register.

It bore the logo of what appeared to be a Slovak company, Hyza.

Austria's Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner has said the best way to handle the refugee crisis was to create legal pathways into Europe rather than stricter border controls.

The 28 member states of the European Union have not yet agreed on introducing binding quotas for the distribution of refugees.

EU leaders declared this week the bloc had "failed" in the face of human agony on its frontiers.