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The European Commission is due to unveil its latest version of a controversial plan to force EU member states to more evenly absorb the wave of migrants reaching Europe via the Mediterranean.UN chief Ban Ki-moon was also due in Brussels yesterday after urging Europe to do more to help migrants and after the EU has sought UN Security Council approval to launch a naval operation against migrant smugglers.

The commission, the executive of the 28-nation EU, will ask member states to share the burden of admitting tens of thousands of asylum seekers who land in Italy, Greece and Malta, the AFP news agency reported.

“The proposal isn’t perfect, but it amounts to an enormous step forward, because it introduces the principle of solidarity,” EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on Tuesday.

“We’ll have to build a consensus” around the relocation proposal for asylum seekers “so that interior ministers can approve it” by a simple majority when they meet June 16 in Luxembourg, she added.

The task is bound to be particularly difficult because Britain, Hungary, the Baltic states, the Czech Republic and Poland oppose mandatory relocation based on a redistribution “key” system.

European governments have been forced to act after hundreds of migrants trying to reach Europe in rickety and overcrowded boats died in the past one month in the Mediterranean, including the drowning of up to 900 on a single vessel.

The proposal by EU Home Affairs Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos suggests migrants be distributed according to four criteria: gross national product, population, unemployment and the number of asylum requests already registered in the country.

The relocation plan is to allow for the transfer to other states of people eligible for international protection. It opens a breach in the Dublin rules that require the country where asylum seekers first land to take them in.

The measure aims to respond to an “emergency,” according to the commission, which fears the arrival of a wave of migrants and asylum seekers during the summer in Italy, Malta and Greece.

Around half a million migrants could attempt to cross the Mediterranean, the UN International Maritime Organisation warned in late April.

The effort to share the burden is due to be limited in time and concerns only new arrivals from the month of July.

EU nations already approved plans May 18 for an unprecedented naval mission starting next month to fight human traffickers responsible for a flood of migrants crossing the Mediterranean from Libya.

The scheme backed by foreign and defence ministers in Brussels will involve European warships and surveillance aircraft gathering intelligence and then raiding boats to crack down on people smugglers.

But the EU is still waiting for a UN resolution that will allow it to destroy boats that belong to people smugglers in Libyan waters.

Meanwhile, thousands of Rohingya from Myanmar and Bangladeshi migrants are still lost at sea and waiting to be rescued in the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea, the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and International Organisation for Migration (IOM) have said.

In a joint press conference in the Philippine capital Manila yesterday, representatives of the two organisations also appealed for $26m in aid for the rescue, resettlement, or return of as many as 10,000 people affected by the migrant crisis.

UNHCR representative to the Philippines Bernard Kerblat said at least 2,621 migrants are believed to be drifting in small “rickety boats” at sea – many near the coast of Malaysia and off the coast of Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

The real number, however, could be much higher, with the UNHCR saying its estimates were “very, very conservative”.

“Every hour which passes by, there are people in the high seas who need to be saved,” Kerblat said. “As we speak, there are still thousands of men, women, children, elderly adrift in vessels most likely without fuel, most likely without water, most likely without food, who need to be brought to shore.”

Many of the migrants are Rohingya — a Muslim minority from Myanmar that has long complained of discrimination and persecution.

As of yesterday morning, the 27th day since the mass sea migration ignited a crisis, Kerblat said at least 3,302 have been rescued off the coast of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Another 1,013 people have been returned to Myanmar and Bangladesh.

He said there have been no additional boat movements reported throughout the region, nor boats carrying migrants being turned away.

But the UNHCR also reported finding mass graves with more than 100 bodies and dozens of human smuggling camps in Malaysia, near the border with Thailand.

Marco Boasso, IOM chief of Mission in the Philippines, called on countries in the Southeast Asian region to have a “coordinated and consistent approach” to address the crisis.

Boasso said that the $26m aid appeal is essential to buy medicine and hire doctors, who will help deal with the medical needs of the migrants.

Tomorrow, Thailand will convene a meeting of 19 countries mostly from the Asia-Pacific region, to discuss the ongoing crisis.

The US and Switzerland are also joining the meeting as “invited as observers”.

Kerblat said the May 29 meeting is “extremely important” to also address the problem of human smuggling and trafficking, which also paved the way for the current crisis to erupt.

Meanwhile, Kerblat praised the Philippines for declaring that it will not turn away Rohingya refugees if they reach the country. — Al Jazeera/AFP