Charity Says 400 Migrants Drowned in Attempt to Get From Libya to Italy

The charity Save the Children's press officer said that about 400 migrants have drowned as they were trying to cross the Mediterranean to get from Libya to Italy.

MOSCOW (Sputnik), Anastasia Levchenko — About 400 migrants have drowned as they were trying to cross the Mediterranean to get from Libya to Italy, the charity Save the Children's press officer told Sputnik Tuesday citing surviving migrants who were saved by the Italian Coast Guard.

“What we know at the moment…. What the migrants told us… is that about 400 people lost their lives,” the press officer said.

The Save the Children spokeswoman could not specify the nationalities of the victims.

“The identification procedures are ongoing at the moment,” she said.

UN refugee agency's (UNHCR) spokesman Federico Fossi told Sputnik that his organization is still waiting to talk to survivors.

The current instability in the Middle East and Libya, including the advance of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group, made many seek refuge in Europe, with the Mediterranean Sea being one of the main routes to get there.

According to UNHCR more than 218,000 people crossed the Mediterranean in 2014 and at least 3,500 died in the attempt.

This April, warm weather has prompted more migrants than usual to risk sailing from North Africa to Italy. On Monday, Italy’s coast guard said it rescued nearly 6,000 migrants over just one weekend.