hundreds of people are feared to have drowned off Libya, after a boat carrying some 600 refugees trying to reach Europe broke up at sea on Friday.

 

The UN's refugee agency said 16 bodies, including two babies, had been found.

UNCHR has said all ships using the Mediterranean should be ready to assist such vessels, as thousands continue to flee North Africa in inadequate boats.

Nato has denied claims that its naval units left dozens of migrants to die aboard another boat in distress.

It said it was unaware of the plight of the boat, which reportedly was adrift for more than two weeks.

The Guardian newspaper said 61 of the 72 people on board the boat died of hunger or thirst, despite being spotted by a military helicopter and Nato ship.

'Extra vigilant' journey
UNHCR's said migrants arriving on the Italian island of Lampedusa had reported seeing the boat carrying some 600 people foundering shortly after leaving the port at Tripoli on Friday.


Sybella Wilkes
UNHCR
If confirmed, this would be one of the largest accidents so far involving the thousands of often unseaworthy boats trying to reach Europe following unrest in North Africa.

Many of the witnesses were relatives of people on board, spokeswoman Sybella Wilkes told the BBC, adding: "There were a lot of distressed people on the quayside."

Ms Wilkes said it appeared that hundreds of people were missing - bodies were seen floating in the sea and those of 16 people, including two babies, have been washed ashore.

She said it was unclear whether anyone was looking for the missing people, but that Nato was not involved in the operation.

The nationalities of the passengers was also not known, but many of those waiting in Lampedusa were Somali, she said.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said it had spoken to one Somali woman who had been on board the ship with her four-month-old baby. The baby died and the mother swam to shore, where she boarded another boat heading to Europe.

Ms Wilkes said "hundreds if not more than a thousand people" have now died making the "treacherous journey".

The agency has said all ships should be prepared to offer immediate help to such boats.

"We are calling on all ships in the Mediterranean - whether commercial, military or otherwise - to be extra vigilant and consider on sight that these boats are in distress and needing rescue," said the spokeswoman.

'Water dropped'
The Guardian reported on Monday that a small boat had left Tripoli on 25 March, hoping to make it to Italy but ran out of fuel and started drifting.


Italy has asked for international help to deal with the huge influx of refugees
Eventually food and water ran out, too.

"Every morning we would wake up and find more bodies, which we would leave for 24 hours and then throw overboard," one passengers, Abu Kurke, told the paper.

On 26 March, the passengers made contact with a priest in Italy, Father Mussie Zerai, who often plays a key role assisting migrants who hit trouble.

He confirmed to the BBC that he had alerted Italian coastguards, who said they would take action. But he lost contact with the boat when its phone battery went dead.


Any claims that a Nato aircraft carrier spotted and then ignored the vessel in distress are wrong”

Nato statement
Abu Kurke said that shortly afterwards a helicopter appeared and dropped bottles of water and packets of biscuits onto the boat - but that after that, no further help arrived.

At one point - on 29 or 30 March, the Guardian says - the boat drifted close to an aircraft carrier. Survivors contacted by the paper said two jets took off and flew low overhead, while the migrants held two starving babies aloft. But no effort was made to assist them.

The Guardian said its inquiries suggested the ship must have been the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle.