Up to 170 migrants are feared dead after two accidents in which dinghies sank in the Mediterranean after leaving North Africa for Europe.

One of the vessels capsized off Libya after departing the country on Thursday, prompting the Italian navy to stage a rescue operation.

But Flavio Di Giacomo, a spokesman for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), said that so far only three of the suspected 120 migrants on-board had been found alive.

"The three survivors told us there were 120 when they left Garabulli, in Libya, on Thursday night," he said.

"After 10 to 11 hours at sea, the boat started sinking and people started drowning.


"Ten women including a pregnant girl were aboard and two children, one of whom was only two months old."

Image: Many of the journeys are made in fragile dinghies. File pic

An Italian military plane first spotted the sinking dinghy as it struggled in rough waters, and threw two safety rafts into the water before retreating due to a lack of fuel.

Later, another helicopter was dispatched from a naval ship and recovered the three survivors, who were suffering from severe hypothermia and were taken to a hospital on the island of Lampedusa.

Rear Admiral Fabio Agostini told Italian TV channel RaiNews24 that at least three people were seen in the water during the rescue, all of whom appeared to be dead.

Libyan authorities also later ordered a merchant ship to go to the scene, but it left after its search for more survivors proved fruitless.

In a separate incident, 53 migrants who left Morocco on another rubber dinghy went missing after what one survivor said was a collision in the Alboran Sea, in the western Mediterranean.

The accident was reported by Spanish migrant organisation Caminando Fronteras.

Image: Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has closed all ports to humanitarian vessels

The numbers of dead from the two incidents are yet to be verified by the United Nations Refugee Agency, but it said in a statement that it was "deeply saddened" by the estimated figures.

Separately, the German charity Sea-Watch said on Saturday it had rescued 47 people at sea, including eight unaccompanied children, from a dinghy in distress north of the Libyan city of Zuwara.

Before the spate of accidents this week, the IOM had already reported 83 deaths in 2019 as a result of people trying to cross the Mediterranean.

It said the number of migrants and refugees landing on European shores had almost doubled in the first 16 days of this year to 4,216, compared to 2,365 over the same period in 2018.

At least 2,297 migrants died or went missing in the Mediterranean last year.

Italian interior minister Matteo Salvini - who has closed ports to humanitarian vessels since his populist government came to power in June - said on Saturday: "As long as European ports will remain open, sea-traffickers will continue to do business and kill people".

Last summer, Mr Salvini, leader of the anti-migrant League, faced an investigation over his refusal to allow dozens of migrants stranded aboard a ship in Sicily to disembark.