About 3,000 refugees have been saved by rescuers and more than 50 dead on boats near the coast of Libya, according to the Italian coastguard.
Not less than 55 bodies were discovered on Wednesday on three overcrowded boats in the Mediterranean Sea, the coastguard said.
51 of the 55 were found in the hold of a wooden boat found drifting precariously off the Libyan coast by the Poseidon, a Swedish ship mobilised under the European Union’s rescue mission Triton.
Yearly, Thousands if not millions mainly from Africa and the Middle East try to cross into Europe by the sea.
Thousands have put to sea this year in the hope of reaching Europe, often dangerously packed into small vessels that were never designed to cross the Mediterranean.
The boat on which rescuers on the Poseidon found the 51 corpses was carrying 439 survivors.
Three women were found dead on a rubber boat carrying a further 120 people. Of the rescued persons, one died shortly after
