More than 100 migrants missing in Mediterranean in vessel sinking, UN says

ROME - A vessel that went down off the Libyan coast has left at least 117 migrants missing in what could be the deadliest disaster in the Mediterranean in more than a year, the U.N. migration agency said Saturday, citing reports from rescued migrants.

The account of the sinking, about 50 nautical miles off the Libyan coast, came from three survivors rescued by the Italian navy. An International Organization for Migration spokesman said two children, including a two-month old, were among those presumed dead.

The central Mediterranean represents one of the world's most perilous migrant passageways. Over the last year, it has seen a reduction in the number of large-scale disasters - in part because smugglers have been using smaller boats for those trying to reach the continent.

Meantime, European governments, particularly Italy, have tightened their own borders and tried to deter African migrants from making the journey.

But the fatality rate for those attempting the trip has increased. Most humanitarian rescue boats have ceased operations in the region, as countries across southern Europe have impounded their vessels or accused the groups of criminal activity.

"We cannot turn a blind eye to the high numbers of people dying on Europe's doorstep," Filippo Grandi, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, said in a statement.

The UN refugee agency, noting that more than 2,200 people died last year trying to reach Europe across the Mediterranean, said that it is "concerned that actions by states are increasingly deterring NGOs from conducting search and rescue operations."

Matteo Salvini, Italy's far-right interior minister, have said his policies - which include closing off port access to humanitarian ships that rescue migrants - have helped to reduce the overall death toll in the Mediterranean by thwarting migrants from attempting the journey.

The move has been domestically popular in Italy, and it reflects how attitudes about migrants - and about the dangers they incur - have gradually hardened in Europe's front line countries.

After more than 300 migrants died in a 2013 shipwreck, Italy launched a yearlong sea operation to avoid similar tragedies. It now cedes much of the search-and-rescue in the Mediterranean to Libya's coast guard. which intercepts migrants bound for Europe and returns them to North Africa.

In a statement about the latest deadly incident, the Italian navy said that by the time a military plane had spotted the sinking dinghy, there were 20 people aboard. The plane launched two inflatable rafts and called for support. A helicopter rescued one person from the water and two people from one of Italian rescue rafts.

The three survivors were taken by helicopter to the island of Lampedusa.

Federico Soda, the Rome-based director of the IOM's Mediterranean coordination office, said it was unclear whether smugglers were changing tactics and returning to using the kind of larger rubber dinghies more common before 2017. But either way, he said, the quality of the boats is low.

“[The migrants] have already bought their one-way ticket,” Soda said. “If you can just get people on a boat and out, the smuggler doesn’t care if they live or die.”