More than 300 migrants are feared drowned after their overcrowded dinghies sank in the Mediterranean, the latest boat disaster on the perilous crossing from Africa to Europe.
The victims were among migrants mainly from sub-Saharan Africa who had left the coast of Libya at the weekend in four small boats, the UN refugee agency said on Wednesday.
"This is a tragedy on an enormous scale and a stark reminder that more lives could be lost if those seeking safety are left at the mercy of the sea," UNHCR Europe director Vincent Cochetel said in a statement.
Details of the new disaster emerged after nine survivors out of a group of more than 200 packed into two dinghies were rescued by the coastguard and taken to the Italian island of Lampedusa - just days after 29 perished in the same area.
"Nine were saved after four days at sea. The other 203 were swallowed by the waves," UNHCR spokeswoman in Italy, Carlotta Sami, said on Twitter.
The agency later said reports gathered from the Italian coastguard and the survivors in Lampedusa now suggest some 300 people are confirmed missing.
In the last year alone, several thousand people have died trying to cross from north Africa to Europe across the Mediterranean, on what the United Nations has described as the most dangerous route in the world.
The IOM said the surviving migrants from the latest disaster spoke French, so probably came from west Africa.
"Because of the bad weather conditions, the two dinghies collapsed and the people fell at sea. Many drowned," the IOM spokesman in Italy, Flavio Di Giacomo, said.
The organisation's spokesman in Geneva Joel Millman told AFP that information was coming in about another stricken boat and warned that the overall toll may reach as many as 350.
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