FRANCE PERSPECTIVE

Paris covers this shipwreck the way one covers an earthquake in a known seismic zone -- with the reflexes, without the surprise. France Info, RFI, France 24 and Le Monde all publish within hours of the NGO announcements by Mediterranea Saving Humans and Sea-Watch. The numbers are identical across all four: a "wooden" boat that departed Libya on Saturday afternoon with 105 people, 32 rescued, 2 bodies recovered, over 70 missing.

But it's the figure only French media highlights that shifts the lens: "Since the beginning of the year, 683 migrants have died or gone missing in the central Mediterranean, according to the International Organization for Migration." France Info leads with it from the opening paragraph. That number turns a news item into a statistical hemorrhage.

RFI adds a geographic detail others omit: the boat departed from "Tajoura, in northern Libya." The place name is not innocent -- Tajoura is a notorious detention center where the EU indirectly funds migrant retention. Le Monde specifies the vessel was made of "wood," not an inflatable dinghy -- a clue about the level of desperation among passengers.

For France, a country of first arrival via its Mediterranean coastline, every shipwreck reignites a domestic political debate Paris would rather not have on an Easter Sunday.