Malmstrom said she hoped there would be more boats patrolling the Mediterranean this northern summer, and praised the efforts of the Italian coastguard, which this week came ashore with 200 survivors and 17 bodies from the latest wreck. But she said the tragedies would not stop until people were given the chance to get to Europe safely and legally.
"Why do people embark on those boats? Because there are no legal ways to get to Europe. The immediate way to help people, especially people from Syria, would be to engage in resettlement," she said. "Pathetically few countries take resettled refugees."
Malmstrom said 14 European countries had so far refused to resettle any Syrian refugees, giving excuses ranging from financial hardship to pressure from far-right parties, whose support has surged in reaction to unemployment, austerity and the euro crisis.
"I would have hoped for stronger political leadership in all countries to stand up against those forces."
She said the EC had no power over governments' migration policy and could not force nations to house the refugees.
"I can only appeal to the humanitarian side of people. These are people who really need support, and if you can take some of the most vulnerable children in a safe way to your country, they don't have to embark on these rickety vessels and maybe drown."
Among the countries offering sanctuary are Britain, Sweden, Norway, Germany and France. But a list compiled by the EU's Eurostat agency showed no pledges from countries including Poland, Croatia, Estonia and Slovakia.
While rehousing a few hundred refugees barely makes a dent when 2.7 million have fled the civil war, Malmstrom said it was "better than zero".
The indications are that many more will be trying to reach Europe this northern summer. Frontex, which monitors and helps to patrol the EU land and sea borders, reported a 48 per cent jump in migrant arrivals between 2012 and 2013.
The largest numbers came from Syria and Eritrea, both countries blighted by conflict and human rights abuses. So far this year, 42,000 people have been recorded entering the EU illegally - most of them in Italy - up from 12,400 in the same period last year.
Most crossings are attempted in the summer months when the water is calmer, and reports in the Italian press suggest that at least half a million people could be in Libya poised to attempt the journey soon.
This has prompted Libya to demand more money from the EU, with one politician threatening they could "facilitate" the migrants' journeys. Malmstrom called such statements disgraceful, but conceded that the lack of any stable government to work within Libya was a huge problem.
Nations including Bulgaria, Italy and Malta have also pleaded for more EU funding to deal with increasing numbers of refugees, but governments are stretched. Gil Arias-Fernandez, deputy executive director of Frontex, said its budget for 2014 was actually slightly lower than in 2013.
Another problem plaguing Europe's borders are accusations that security forces are expelling people before processing their asylum claim. These "push-backs" are illegal under international law, but human rights groups have accused Greece and Bulgaria of the practice.
Malmstrom said there was little the EU could do short of asking the member states for an explanation and threatening to cut funding.
This is a recurring problem for the European Commission. Because border control and migration are such toxic domestic issues, the EU has been granted few competencies in the area. Many of the people risking their lives are trying to get to Europe to work, and Malmstrom is convinced that opening up more legal routes to apply for jobs in the EU would both stem the deaths at sea and economically benefit member states.
She will be pushing this policy at a meeting of EU leaders in June, but she doesn't believe the prospects are promising.
"I wouldn't say that they are overwhelmingly enthusiastic."
US claiming evidence of chlorine gas
The United States has joined France in acquiring intelligence that chlorine gas has been used in attacks against rebel-held areas in Syria, according to John Kerry, the US Secretary of State.
Kerry said he had seen "raw" information that chlorine had been used and that the incidents would constitute a violation of the chemical weapons convention that Syria signed last year.
Tests conducted by the Daily Telegraph on material gathered from sites in Syria where the regime dropped poison gas barrel bombs last month clearly showed the presence of ammonia and chlorine.
Laurent Fabius, the French Foreign Minister, said on Thursday that Paris was evaluating evidence of 14 attacks by the regime using chemicals since last October.
Kerry said the US also possessed evidence of attacks. "I have seen evidence," he said. "I've seen the raw data that suggests that there may have been, as France has suggested, a number of instances in which chlorine has been used in the conduct of war. If it has, and if it could be proven, then that would be against the agreements of the chemical weapons treaty, against the weapons convention Syria has signed up to."
- Independent, Daily Telegraph UK
