The UN refugee agency said over 700 migrants are feared dead in three Mediterranean Sea shipwrecks south of Italy in the last few days as they tried desperately to reach Europe in unseaworthy smuggling boats. Carlotta Sami, spokeswoman for UNHCR, told The Associated Press by phone Sunday that an estimated 100 people are missing from a smugglers' boat which capsized Wednesday. She said about 550 others are missing from a smuggling boat that capsized Thursday morning after leaving the western Libyan port of Sabratha a day earlier. She says refugees say that boat, which was carrying about 670 people, didn't have an engine and was being towed by another packed smuggling boat before it capsized. About 25 people from the capsized boat managed to reach the first boat and survive, 79 others from it were rescued by international patrol boats and 15 bodies were recovered. In a third shipwreck on Friday, Sami says 135 people were rescued, 45 bodies were recovered and an unknown number of the migrants are missing. Hundreds of migrants drown each year attempting the dangerous Mediterranean Sea crossing.
