Ed Miliband this morning launched a furious attack on David Cameron and other EU leaders for leaving refugees to drown by stopping search and rescue missions in the Mediterranean . The Labour leader said it was unacceptable to abandon thousands of immigrants boarding makeshift boats in Africa in the hope of making it to Europe . He also called on the UK to take a 'fare share ' of refugees fleeing civil war . Mr Miliband 's remarks came amid growing alarm over the number of desperate families risking their lives to escape the raging civil wars in the Middle East and North Africa . Scroll down for video . The Labour leader said it was unacceptable to abandon thousands of immigrants boarding makeshift boats in Africa in the hope of making it to Europe . Around 1,300 people are believed to have drowned in the past two weeks while trying to reach Europe in boats launched from Libya . Speaking in Manchester this morning , Mr Miliband attacked the decision to abandon European rescue missions . He said : 'The original decision was a mistake and it should be reversed . ' Mr Miliband said : 'The logic is we are leaving people to die because it is a pull factor . We are better than that . We ca n't be leaving people to drown . ' Earlier , he said : 'We can not stand by as people drown in European waters simply to escape conflict in Libya and Syria . If I was prime minister , I would be working with other European leaders to act . ' Local residents and rescue workers help a migrant woman after a boat carrying migrants sank off the island of Rhodes , southeastern Greece , yesterday . Around 1,300 people are believed to have drowned in the past two weeks while trying to reach Europe in boats launched from Libya . But senior Conservative minister William Hague insisted that the rescue missions had not helped . He also defended the Government 's intervention in Libya in Libya 2011 , helping to overthrow Colonel Gaddafi . He said it would be 'wrong to think that whatever 's happened in Libya in the last few years is the cause of this ' . Tunisian Mohammed Ali Malek , 27 , was arrested when in Sicily last night some 24 hours after his overcrowded boat capsized in the Mediterranean killing hundreds of migrants . He added on BBC Radio 5live : 'Let me remind you of something as well , which is that when Colonel Gaddafi was still in power , there were periods when he simply allowed people to do exactly this , to get into boats and try to go to Europe – that was one of the ways in which he put pressure on Europe . 'So I do n't think that is the change in this situation ; I think this is a problem that goes well beyond Libya . ' The Deputy Prime Minister , Nick Clegg , said the priority for stopping the migrant crisis had to be to stop people boarding boats rather than stepping up patrols in the Mediterranean . He said : ' [ It is ] the human traffickers and smugglers who are peddling this terrible trade which is leading to so many people dying in the Mediterranean . 'And I think if we can do [ tackle ] that and provide more aid and assistance in North Africa to encourage people to stay put rather than risk life and limb moving great distances , that it seems to me is a more sustainable solution than coming up with lots of arbitrary numbers about who takes in which number of migrants from North Africa . And that 's where the focus of our attention should be in the summit tomorrow . ' The political row over how to tackle the crisis was sparked after 950 men , women and children drowned this week . Survivors told of how women and children died 'like rats in a cage ' after being locked into the boat 's hold by callous traffickers in Libya . Some resorted to clinging to their floating corpses until Italian and Maltese coastguards came to rescue them in the dead of the night . Elsewhere three people died when a rickety wooden boat ran aground on the Greek island of Rhodes . Among them was a tiny child whose lifeless body was carried to the shore by a local man who had waded in to try to save him . Sunday morning : Italian coastguard responds to migrant ship after it capsizes off the coast of Libya with 700 passengers unaccounted for . Sunday afternoon : Passengers accounts of the ship say as many as 950 people may have been on board with 300 locked in the hull . Another boat is rescued off Sicily carrying 100 Syrian refugees . They are all brought to safety . Monday morning : A boat runs aground on the Greek holiday island of Rhodes killing a man , woman and child . Monday afternoon : Italian and Milanese coastguards respond to two distress calls off the coast of Libya from boats thought to be carrying up to 400 people . EU heads of state call for urgent action to ease the migrant crisis with an emergency summit called for later in the week . Monday at midnight : The surviving passengers of the Libyan boat arrive in Catania , Sicily . Among them is the crew 's Tunisian captain and his Syrian crew member . Both were arrested and charged with 'favouring illegal immigration ' . The captain was additionally charged with multiple manslaughter .
Around 500 people have reported fleeing to Europe in the past two weeks . Ed officials called on the authorities to take a ' fare ##load ' of refugees fleeing Africa . He said it was unacceptable to abandon immigrants on makeshift boats . Ministers claim humanitarian missions encourage refugees to attempt the journey .