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 can't be leaving people to drown.' Earlier, he said: 'We cannot 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 don'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 1,300 people have drowned fleeing to Europe in the past two weeks .
Ed Miliband called on the UK to take a 'fare share' of refugees fleeing Africa .
He said it was unacceptable to abandon immigrants on makeshift boats .
Ministers claim rescue missions encourage migrants to attempt the journey .