A total of 20 migrants including women and children are missing and feared dead after their rubber boat overturned in the Mediterranean at the weekend, the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday.
"Among the 20 feared dead it is reported that some were crushed by other people in the boat, while others drowned at sea," UNHCR's spokesperson William Spindler said on Tuesday.
"The victims include a child, women and some men - mostly from Nigeria, Ivory Coast and reportedly from Bangladesh," Spindler added.
Seven bodies were recovered and taken with the survivors to the western Sicilian port of Trapani, he said.
Around 500 survivors were rescued from four stricken rubber boats in the Mediterranean at the weekend by the German Sea Eye charity and a merchant ship, UNHCR's Italian office reported.
Reports emerging from the sea rescue effort between Italy and Libya suggest around 20 men, women and children are missing and feared dead after rescuers were able to pluck some 500 survivors from the Mediterranean Sea over the weekend.
The latest shipwreck brings the estimated number of people missing or dead in the Mediterranean this year to over 1,350, UNHCR said.
UNHCR urged governments to make saving lives the top priority and to offer family reunification, resettlement and private sponsorship for refugees and migrants as alternatives to the perilous journeys to Europe.
UNHCR also urged greater efforts by the international community to resolve conflicts and boost economic development to enable people to stay in their homelands and shun unscrupulous people-smuggling gangs.
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