Ten women die in refugee boat accident off Libyan coast

Ten women have died in a new migrant boat accident off the coast of Libya in the Mediterranean Sea, Italian authorities said, as they began the gruesome task of removing hundreds of corpses from another salvaged wreck.

The women were found dead in the bottom of a partially submerged dinghy, said Italian coastguard spokesman Captain Cosimo Nicastro.

Crew aboard the Italian coastguard patrol boat, the Diciotti, managed to rescue 107 of the people trapped on the sinking dinghy.

In a separate rescue operation, the same crew saved another 116 people aboard another three rubber boats in distress in the same area between Sicily and Libya.

Desperate journeys

Refugees pay thousands of dollars to people smugglers to get on to the boats, which are often overcrowded, low on supplies, and not fit to travel long distances.

Last year more than a million people made their way to Europe by sea from the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.

The United Nations refugee agency estimates that from April 19, 2015 to today, about 4,937 people have died while making the journey across the sea to Europe.

More than 64,000 people have landed at Italian ports since the start of the year, most of them from sub-Saharan Africa, according to the UN.