The International Organization for Migration said the latest deaths meant 4,220 lives had been lost in the Mediterranean so far this year, compared with 3,777 in the whole of 2015. MILAN — Survivors say as many as 240 people have died in two shipwrecks off Libya, the U.N. refugee agency reported Thursday — bringing this year's toll to more than 4,220 migrants dead or missing in risky Mediterranean Sea crossings, the highest count on record. One group of migrants, including about 20 women and six children, set off in a rubber dinghy from Libya around 3 a.m. on Wednesday, but their boat collapsed after a few hours, said Flavio di Giacomo, a spokesman for the U.N.'s International Organisation for Migration, who cited accounts by survivors. Leonard Doyle, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, said 12 bodies were recovered in one of the shipwrecks, located 25 miles off the Libyan coast. Key points: More than 200 people drown off Libyan coast within 48 hours

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"Two rubber dinghies, which is what they are, rubber dinghies, packed with migrants, totalling over 300 we think in all ... have succumbed to the the waves off Libya in very bad weather," he said. Asylum seekers have told the refugee agency that smugglers say European training of Libyan coastguards means that rescue missions will soon be handed over to Libya and so any rescued migrants will be taken ashore in Libya rather than in Italy, IOM's Italy spokesman Flavio di Giacomo said.
The United Nations believes that at least 239 migrants drowned in shipwrecks near the coast of Libya.