Another boat with 300 migrants in capsize off Libya killing at least 20 at the moment

At least 20 migrants are feared dead after another incident involving migrant boats off
the Libyan coast, the International Organization of Migration said after receiving a distress call.

The IOM said a person on board one of three boats, carrying hundreds of migrants, made the call on Monday, a day after another boat sank in the same area.

The Switzerland-based organisation reported that the caller said a ship was sinking with 300 people on board.

Coastguards were trying to verify the call and location of the boat.

Earlier in the day, 83 people were rescued after a boat carrying migrants ran aground off the Greek island of Rhodes, police said.

Three deaths were confirmed by the Greek coastguards in that shipwreck.

The latest incident comes as European Union foreign ministers are meeting in Luxembourg to discuss their response to the migrant emergency in the Mediterranean.

John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia director, called on European governments on Monday to prioritise setting up an immediate search and rescue plan to prevent the escalating death toll of migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea.

Dalhuisen said, “EU and European leaders have repeatedly spoken of the need for a holistic approach to this crisis, working with countries of origin and transit, and clamping down on people smugglers,”  “These are important, but the immediate priority must be the immediate safety of refugees and migrants who will continue to make the perilous journey across the Mediterranean to Europe.”

“Ministers must emerge from today”s meeting with a collective European search and rescue proposal,” he said.

Hundreds of migrants were thought to have drowned when their boat overturned on Sunday, off the coast of Libya.