An international organization campaigning for the welfare of refugees has called on the European Union (EU) to pay more attention to the plight of migrants arriving in Europe.

A spokesman for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Itayi Viriri, told Turkish Anadolu Agency that the EU is responsible for creating “safe and legal channels” for the migrants and refugees who make perilous journeys to the continent.

“A good start would be better coordination among EU member states to deal with migration. So far only Italy and Greece are taking in significant numbers and other EU states need to take in more refugees and open up more safe and legal channels of migration,” said Viriri.

“It is estimated that several European economies will require significant numbers of migrants to support their economies for decades to come and yet they are ignoring all these able-bodied and mostly young people who leave their countries of origin with a strong desire and willingness to work and be a productive part of societies they find themselves in,” he added.

Viriri added that the IOM is also highly concerned about the risky means the migrants use to travel to the EU, and the role criminal gangs of human smugglers play in the process, by taking money from those in desperation, and causing suffering and loss of life.

“In this day and age, we should not be losing any lives at sea in the manner we are witnessing now. Would-be migrants and refugees should not be cornered into such levels of desperation that they have to resort to entrusting their lives to unscrupulous criminal smuggling gangs,” he said.

Each year, tens of thousands of migrants risk their lives by trusting criminal gangs of human traffickers, who take their money to smuggle them to Europe.

Figures by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) show that, in 2015 alone, about 2,100 migrants and refugees lost their lives taking the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean Sea to EU shores in smuggler boats.