However, Sea Watch, a private rescue mission, said that two boats sank out of the 16 total boats that set out to the waters earlier in the day.
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The European Union’s anti-trafficking naval force in the Mediterranean, known as Operation Sophia, said there may be 20 to 30 fatalities from the latest sinking in the Mediterranean Sea, about 48 to 64 kilometers (30 to 40 miles) off Libya.
Around 20 people are feared dead after a migrant boat capsized Thursday off Libya’s coast.
The Italian navy released a series of startling images this week of one such incident, showing an overloaded trawler in the process of tipping over, and people struggling to stay afloat as they waited for rescue.
In the single deadliest migrant boat sinking since the crisis began, some 700 people died in April previous year, also off the coast of the troubled north African country. He said he had no details about the empty boats.
“Over the past four years, IOM reports, 1.4 million migrants and refugees have crossed the Mediterranean via three principle routes linking Europe to North Africa and Turkey”.
A helicopter and several rubber boats were deployed in the rescue operation.
An Italian coast guard spokesman said 91 migrants had been rescued so far.
The Bettica was headed on Thursday for Sicily, where the survivors will be added to the list of almost 40,000 migrants to arrive at Italy’s southern ports this year.
The Italian ship which led the rescue, the Bettica, was taking the survivors to Sicily on Thursday. This year alone, as many as 37,700 refugees have made the risky journey across across the Mediterranean from the Middle East and North Africa to Italy.
Elsewhere, a Libyan navy spokesman said 766 migrants were rescued by the Libyan coastguard.
The study claimed smugglers organised in loosely connected networks continue to facilitate migrants’ passage to Europe and that the annual turnover of migrant smuggling was more than $5bn (£3.4m) in 2015.
Iavazzo said the survivors had mostly been picked up by dinghies fitted with hydrojet motors to avoid the risk of propellers injuring people in the water.
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Meanwhile, a Nigerian baby rescued after her mother died during a treacherous Mediterranean crossing has captured hearts across Italy.
