ROME – More migrant deaths in the Mediterranean Sea were reported Monday, while foreign and interior ministers from the European Union were meeting in Luxembourg to work out a common response to the spiralling crisis.
The talks were convened following a weekend shipwreck which is thought to have claimed as many as 900 lives, which could make it the worst such accident in recent history. Only 28 survivors and 24 bodies have been recovered, amid reports that others may be locked up inside the sunken ship.
Nor did the pace of lives lost in Mediterranean crossings seem to be abating Monday.
The International Organization for Migration received a call at its Rome office from an unidentified person claiming to be on a sinking boat with 300 people on board, including 20 who had already perished, a spokesman said.
The same caller said there was a total of three boats in distress.
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, speaking at a press conference with Maltese counterpart Joseph Muscat, said there are at least 150 people aboard a dinghy "very close to Libya," at a distance of 30 nautical miles (55 kilometres).
A second vessel, with about 300 passengers, is also being rescued, the Italian leader said, but it was not clear if he was referring to the boat reported by the IOM.
In Greece, the Athens News Agency said coast guard officials found three bodies and rescued 83 people from the water after a migrant boat crashed against rocks near the Dodecannese island of Rhodes.
The Mediterranean is considered the world's deadliest sea migration route. Last year, more than 3,400 were estimated to have died while trying to cross from North Africa to Southern Europe. Casualties have increased sharply in the first months of 2015.
Italian Premier Matteo Renzi answers media questions during his joint press conference with Maltese premier Joseph Muscat (not in picture) during a press conference after a meeting in Rome. (EPA photo)
Mr Renzi said there was faint hope of finding more people from the weekend disaster, in which a boat capsized 130 nautical miles north of Libya either late Saturday or early Sunday.
"We are continuing the search to verify what has happened, even if it is very difficult," he told Italian radio broadcaster RTL 102.5.
A Maltese rescue officer told reporters that a patrol boat had found a life vest and personal items, including what appeared to be a diary.
An Italian coast guard vessel offloaded the bodies of the victims in Malta and then sailed off to take 27 survivors to Catania, Italy. One more survivor was airlifted to the Sicilian port on Sunday, because he needed urgent medical attention.
The man, hailing from Bangladesh, told Italian prosecutors that the boat had 950 people on board, including 40-50 children and 200 women, and that smugglers operating the ship had blocked exit doors from lower decks.
Italy's coast guard said the migrants' boat was presumed to have capsized after they rushed to one side of the vessel to flag down a passing Portuguese cargo.
Mr Renzi said that if more bodies are found, they would be taken to Libya.
The EU has come under renewed pressure to find ways to stop migrant deaths at sea. The bloc is running a sea patrol mission, Triton, which has come under criticism for being too limited in scope and resources to make a difference.
According to Maurizio Scalia, a prosecutor in Palermo, Sicily, "there are about 1 million migrants on the Libyan coast who are ready to leave for Europe".
The figure would be unprecedented: according to UNHCR, the United Nations agency for refugees, the number of boat migrants who crossed the Mediterranean last year was just under 220,000, including about 170,000 who arrived in Italy.
Illegal migrants on Zefyros beach at Rhodes island in Greece April 20. A ship with 200 undocumented migrants on board run aground at Rhodes central beach Zefyros. Most of the migrants fell into the water and managed to swim safely to the beach. (EPA photo)
Mr Scalia's office presented the results of an investigation into a human-smuggling network that organises migrant boat trips, but also the illegal transfer of asylum seekers from Sicily to northern European countries like Germany, Sweden and Norway.
Prosecutors issued 24 arrest warrants, but only 14 were executed. The two leading figures of the organisation -- one of whom is also wanted in connection to the 2013 Lampedusa boat tragedy -- are among the fugitives, and are presumed to be living in Libya.
EU foreign and interior ministers were scheduled to hold joint talks on migration starting at 3pm in Luxembourg (10pm Bangkok time). The meeting had been planned for some time, but was brought forward following this weekend's death.
The bloc's foreign policy chief, Italy-born Federica Mogherini, said EU leaders might also be summoned for a special summit on migration "later this week." She called for "a common sense of European responsibility," while stressing that "there is no magic solution."
Separately, Mr Renzi and his Maltese counterpart, Joseph Muscat, were slated to hold talks in Rome. Speaking to the Times of Malta, Mr Muscat said: "This cannot go on. The judgement that will be passed on those that allow this to continue will be harsh."