At least 40 migrants suffocate to death in boat off Libya

Seven of the dead were transported to the Navy ship, but the remainder of the bodies are still in the hold as the Italian Navy tows the boat into the Italian Island of Lampedusa.

RaiNews24 TV, reporting from the navy rescue coordination center in Rome, said the dead migrants were found in the hold of an overcrowded smugglers’ boat.

According to the worldwide Orgernisation for Migration, more than 200,000 migrants have died under similar circumstances.

Survivors were eventually brought to an Italian port, after being transferred to a ship working with the Frontex mission, a European initiative that aims to save the lives of migrants crossing the Mediterranean.

Around 320 people had been rescued but “they are still counting the victims”, said Interior Minister Angelino Alfano.

“These latest tragedies underscore the dangers faced by migrants in the Channel of Sicily, now the deadliest route for those fleeing violence, natural disasters and abject poverty”, IOM said in a statement, CNN reported.

Over the last two weeks about 300 migrants have died while trying to cross the Mediterranean.

The deaths were caused by suffocation as the migrants were held in a confined space below deck, reports say. It was April when 800 migrants drowned when the vessel they were travelling in capsized off the Libyan coast.

Irish Naval vessel the LÉ Niamh was the first on the scene of that emergency and the crew rescued 367 people.

Lack of political stability in Libya has made the North African country the default departure point for these journeys, which carry migrants largely from Eritrea, Nigeria, and Somalia.

Tuesday night, about fifty migrants who were aboard a rubber dinghy were reported missing at sea and almost 2,000 people were rescued during the week.

This compares to 2014 figures which show that 219,000 migrants arrived in Europe over the course of the whole year, meaning that 2015 arrivals have already surpassed 2014 total arrivals.