Forty migrants missing after raft sinks near Libya - Italy coast guard

Forty migrants were missing after the raft that carried them sank around 48 km from eastern Libya, the Italian coast guard says. Italian authorities sent boats to the scene which rescued around 55 people, but survivors said there were around 95 people in total on the raft. Italian media reported that at least 10 had died. The sinking will likely add to a death toll from such incidents in the waters between Italy and North Africa. Last week, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said the number of fatalities had risen to nearly 3,000 since the beginning of this year. Droves of people, many fleeing war in Syria and military conscription in Eritrea, have attempted the perilous passage this year, bringing the number of people successfully arriving in Italy by sea to around 130,000 in 2014, compared with 60,000 last year, according to the U.N. refugee agency. A breakdown of order in Libya has made it almost impossible to police the traffickers who pack people into rickety boats and charge them some $1,000 each for the passage.

Europe