ROME (Sputnik) — According to the La Stampa newspaper, the Italian vessel has already rescued 130 people from the boat and continues its rescue mission.
The newspaper added that the survivors reported that there were at least 200 more people in the boat, who were missing after the accident.
Europe has been beset by a massive refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants fleeing their crisis-torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa, trying to escape violence and poverty. The majority of them cross the Mediterranean Sea and arrive in the European Union using southern EU nations, such as Italy and Greece, as transit points.
