700 migrants feared dead in Mediterranean crossing

Some 700 migrants and refugees are feared to have died in shipwrecks that occurred in the southern Mediterranean this week, United Nation refugee agency and charities assisting survivors said on Sunday.

Refugees wait for boarding buses at the informal camp of Idomeni on the border with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) on May 26, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

A major incident took place off the Libyan coasts on Thursday, and would have claimed the highest death toll.

"We will never know the exact number and their identity, but survivors tell that over 500 human beings died," UNHCR spokesperson Carlotta Sami said on Twitter referring to this shipwreck.

The migrants and refugees had sailed aboard two fishing boats and an inflatable craft from the Libyan port of Sabratha the day before, according to what survivors told Save the Children charity in Pozzallo, Sicily.

"They said the first fishing boat carried some 500 people, and was towing the second, with over 400 on board," Giovanna Di Benedetto, spokesperson for Save the Children in Sicily, told Xinhua.

The third craft, a dinghy, had at least 100 people on board.

"On Thursday morning, the second fishing boat began to sink, and few dozens people were able to leave this craft and find safety onto the first boat by swimming or holding the rope linking the vessels," she added.

Then, the second boat sank quickly, and reportedly took hundreds of people down in the waters, according to Di Benedetto.

The people who spoke with the humanitarian officers, both survivors of the second boat and witnesses from the first one, were mainly of Eritrean origin, the spokesperson told Xinhua.

A Sudanese national and three other suspected traffickers were arrested once they were brought to Pozzallo with the survivors, according to Italian media.

Dozens of women and at least 40 children were among the victims of this major shipwreck, Ansa news agency reported.

Another 110 migrants and refugees were missing after an earlier shipwreck occurred on Wednesday.

Some 540 people were rescued and seven bodies were in fact recovered on Wednesday, according to the Italian coast guard that coordinates rescue operations of the European Union (EU) EUNAVFOR MED mission in the southern Mediterranean.

The overcrowded boat on which they were sailing capsized shortly after being spotted by a ship of the Italian navy. At least 650 people had left Libya onboard of the craft, according to what survivors told Italian authorities.

Finally, at least 45 people died in the third incident that occurred on Friday.

Some 629 migrants were rescued in this operation, and brought to the southern port of Reggio Calabria by the Italian navy ship Vega on Sunday.

Most of them were of Eritrean and Somali origins, Save the Children told Xinhua. The Vega ship also brought to land the 45 bodies recovered.

Overall, at least 12,000 migrants and refugees were saved in the Mediterranean during the week, according to the Italian coast guard.