Hundreds of migrants are feared to be dead after a boat attempting to reach Europe capsized off the Libyan coast.
As many as 400 people are thought to have died as the boat sank in the Mediterranean Sea, with the Italian coastguard stating it has rescued 145 people so far. Whilst 9 bodies have been recovered Commander Filippo Marini, an Italian coastguard spokesman, said they had not found any more "survivors or anything else which would indicate more victims".
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the charity Save the Children said those rescued included "several young males, probably minors, among the victims".
More than 8,000 migrants have been rescued since Friday, as they attempted to reach the Italian coast. According to IOM estimates up to 3,072 migrants died in the Mediterranean in 2014 attempting to reach the shores of Europe, compared with an estimate of 700 in the previous year.
Thousands more people are expected to make the perilous journey this year. The EU’s commissioner for migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos, said “the unprecedented influx of migrants at our borders, and in particular refugees, is unfortunately the new norm, and we will need to adjust our responses accordingly”.