EU: The deaths of three African migrants trying to scale the razor-wire fence of the Spanish enclave of Melilla in north Africa last week provoked few headlines in Ireland.
The Moroccan authorities' grizzly discovery of more than 30 corpses washed up along their coastline over the past seven days was not big news either.
Human rights groups, such as the Red Cross, estimate the annual death toll of Africans seeking entry to the EU is now running into thousands. The truth is that for most northern Europeans the fate of African migrants traversing the deserts of north Africa or attempting to cross the Mediterranean sea in flimsy boats is not a priority.
But under pressure from Spain, France, Malta and Italy - the EU states on the front line of the current tide of African migration - the first Euro-Africa conference on migration and development will take place today and tomorrow in Rabat, Morocco.
Officials from almost 60 countries and numerous non-governmental organisations and UN agencies will attend the summit, which is expected to agree a joint action plan on migration. EU officials involved in drafting the plan say it will focus on legal and illegal migration, development, police co-operation and financing.
"This is not about closing the EU borders at all. It is about presenting a political declaration that confirms EU and African states will work in partnership to tackle the issue of migration and development," says an EU official attending the conference.
The need for action is great. Since January more than 9,500 immigrants have arrived in the Canary Islands and with 46 per cent of sub-Saharan Africans living on less than a dollar a day, most governments see no prospect of a fall-off in these numbers.
The European Commission is working on several projects to try to stem the tide of African migrants, including financing EU patrols of popular sea routes to the Canaries and Malta and encouraging African states to take back illegal migrants in exchange for aid. The EU is also mooting plans for a common asylum and migration policy, which could open the door for more educated Africans to work legally in Europe.
"Europe faces a labour market catastrophe in the future as 80 million less people will be available to work within the union . . . we will need to have a system in place to offer skilled African workers the opportunity to work in Europe," says another EU official.
A pilot project with Egypt, where many skilled engineers remain unemployed, is already under discussion. But many African states are concerned that Europe's appetite for skilled workers from Africa will result in a "brain drain" of key workers, demonstrating the huge complexities involved in tackling the migration issue. For example there are more Malawi doctors working in Manchester than Malawi doctors in Malawi, according to EU statisticians.
"This type of brain drain undermines African states' development and is already evident," says Daniela Adorna, who works on migration issues with the Red Cross. "We are also very concerned that there are no concrete suggestions on how to address the causes of migration while there is already a strong focus on controlling the EU's external borders and setting up transit camps in third countries."
Even the label "illegal migrant" used to describe the Africans flooding into Spain and Italy is controversial among human rights groups.
"Spanish authorities are assuming that most people arriving in the Canary Islands are economic migrants, making possible refugees invisible," says Itziar Ruiz-Gimenez, an expert on migration for Amnesty International's Spanish section.
These are just a few of the issues that will be discussed at the Rabat conference, which will take place against a backdrop of increasing numbers of migrant deaths. Clearly an urgent response is required.