As many as 300 people are feared dead after attempting to reach Italy on inflatable dinghies in stormy weather in one of the Mediterranean Sea’s worst maritime disasters, sparking calls for European authorities to fund more search-and-rescue operations.
Based on accounts from survivors, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said that four rubber boats carrying migrants mainly from sub-Saharan Africa left a Libyan beach on Saturday, but scores drowned in international waters in high waves and freezing temperatures.
The death toll, if confirmed, approaches that of a shipwreck off the Italian island of Lampedusa in October 2013 that killed 366 migrants, triggering the launch of Mare Nostrum, an expansive search-and-rescue mission in the Mediterranean run by the Italian navy.
