MILAN — Rescue crews searched Monday for survivors and bodies from what could be the Mediterranean's deadliest refugee tragedy ever as hundreds more took to the sea undeterred and EU foreign ministers gathered for an emergency meeting to address the crisis.
If reports of at least 700 and as many as 900 dead are confirmed, the weekend shipwreck near the Libyan coast would raise to well over 1,000 the number of refugees who died or disappeared during the perilous Mediterranean crossing in the past week. More than 400 are feared dead in another sinking. More than 10,000 others were rescued.
"This tragedy didn't have to happen," Sarah Tyler, a spokesman for Save the Children, said of Sunday's incident. "That is almost as many as died in the Titanic, and 31 times the number who died when the Costa Concordia sank."
Libya is a transit point for migrants fleeing conflict, repression and poverty in countries such as Eritrea, Niger, Syria, Iraq and Somalia, with increased instability there and improving weather prompting more people to attempt the dangerous crossing.
One survivor of the weekend sinking, identified as a 32-year-old Bangladeshi, has put the number of people on board the smugglers' boat at as many as 950. Authorities previously had quoted him as saying 700 migrants were on board.
