According to the Italian Coast Guard, 373 people have been rescued after the accident and the rescuers have recovered 25 bodies so far.
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Up to 700 refugees were on board a fishing boat that capsized 15 nautical miles off the Libyan coast on Wednesday.
“We don’t know how many people might be trapped within the belly of the boat that capsized and sunk, that’s our greatest fear”, said Will Turner, the MSF emergency coordinator.
Seven ships, several helicopters and a drone were helping search for survivors.
“Yesterday is heavy on our minds but the boats will not stop”, the organization said on Twitter.
Italian authorities estimate more than 600 people were packed on the ship launched from Libya. Police arrested the men after speaking to survivors during the night after they arrived in Palermo. They include those of four children.
Rescuers are still working on the rescue, but fear the death toll will only rise.
“The only people who caused the sinking are the smugglers who overloaded this vessel in the first place”, he said, adding that 50 passengers was its “absolute maximum” for safety.
Rai reported that around 200 people could be still missing in the disaster, because according to survivors’ accounts there were around 600-650 people onboard the metal boat, with many travelling in the hold. That boat overturned when a container ship went to its rescue, the smugglers botched the steering, and migrants also rushed to one side, investigators determined.
MSF said it initially received a call from Rome’s Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre about a wooden boat in distress at around 9am but was diverted to carry out a rescue of another vessel.
“People were clinging to life rafts, fighting for their lives”, said MSF’s Juan Matias, who was aboard Dignity 1. A number of Syrians were among those rescued.
It called for the creation of safe and legal ways for people to seek asylum or migrate to Europe, saying that was the only way to bring an end to such tragedies.
He did, however, vow to speed up procedures to get migrants to the mainland as soon as possible, and said a new housing complex would soon be completed in Athens to relocate hundreds of refugees now sleeping in one of the capital’s parks.
In a joint statement released on Thursday, European Commission (EC) First Vice-President Frans Timmermans, High-Representative and Vice-President Federica Mogherini and Migration and Home Affairs Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said that “just one life lost is one too many”.
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The father’s heroic effort to save his wife and their toddler was among the most dramatic stories to emerge from two days of disasters for migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean.
