The EU should sink boats carrying illegal immigrants to prevent them entering Europe, British National Party leader Nick Griffin said during an interview with the BBC

When the interviewer, BBC Correspondent Shirin Wheeler, replied: "I don't think the EU is in the business of murdering people at sea." Griffin replied: "I didn't say anyone should be murdered at sea - I say boats should be sunk, they can throw them a life raft and they can go back to Libya."

Libya has no functioning asylum system and is not a party to the 1951 UN convention relating to the status of refugees; human rights groups have raised concerns about Italy sending migrants back to Libya without first screening them for asylum claims or to discover whether they are sick, injured, unaccompanied children or victims of human trafficking.