MORE than 700 migrants are feared dead in three Mediterranean shipwrecks near Italy in the last few days as they tried to reach Europe in unseaworthy smuggling boats, the UN refugee agency has said.
UNHCR spokeswoman Carlotta Sami said that an estimated 100 people are missing from a boat which capsized on Wednesday.
The Italian navy took pictures of that capsizing even as it rushed to rescue all those thrown into the sea from the vessel.
She said about 550 others are missing from a smuggling boat that capsized on Thursday morning after leaving the western Libyan port of Sabratha a day earlier.
Ms Sami says refugees claimed that boat, which was carrying about 670 people, did not have an engine and was being towed by another packed smuggling boat before it capsized.
About 25 people from the capsized boat managed to reach the first boat and survive, 79 others from it were rescued by international patrol boats and 15 bodies were recovered.
In a third shipwreck on Friday, Ms Sami says 135 people were rescued, 45 bodies were recovered and an unknown number of people are missing.
Survivors are being taken to the Italian ports of Taranto and Pozzallo.
Ms Sami says the UN agency is trying to gather information with sensitivity considering most of the new arrivals are either shipwreck survivors themselves or traumatised by what they saw.
Italy's southern islands are the main destinations for countless numbers of smuggling boats launched from the shores of Libya each week packed with people seeking jobs and safety in Europe.
Hundreds of migrants drown each year attempting the dangerous Mediterranean Sea crossing.
Meanwhile 19 people have been rescued from the English Channel after their inflatable boat began to sink.
The UK Coastguard received a call for assistance just off the coast of Dymchurch in Kent at 11.40pm on Saturday.
A search-and-rescue helicopter was deployed as well as lifeboats from Dungeness and Littlestone, and coastguard rescue teams from Dungeness and Folkestone.
The rhib (rigid-hulled inflatable boat), with 19 people on board, was found at 2am and the matter was handed over to Border Force.
The incident has raised concerns of security around Britain' s coastal borders.
It has been reported the people on board had alerted their families in Calais, who raised the alarm with the French authorities.
The incident comes after 17 suspected Albanian migrants and a British man wanted on suspicion of murder in Spain were detained after a catamaran arrived at Chichester Marina in West Sussex on Tuesday.
The 55-year-old man, who was the subject of a European Arrest Warrant, was also detained on suspicion of facilitating illegal immigration while the 17 Albanian men were held on suspicion of entering the UK illegally.
The Albanians have been detained pending Home Office consideration of their cases.
Also last month, two Iranian men were found floating in an ill-equipped dinghy in the English Channel.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) recently revealed migrants trying to reach the UK are paying smuggling gangs up to £13,500 for their journey.
