Italian navy says 14 dead in migrant shipwreck

The Italian navy said another 200 people had been rescued, while some media reports claimed as many as 400 people had been on board the ship -- just days after another migrant boat disaster off Libya.

"Fourteen bodies have been recovered so far. Medical workers on the Sirio and the Grecale are providing assistance to the 200 survivors," the Italian navy said, referring to two warships on the scene.

The local Jesuit refugee centre said the toll could be significantly higher, talking of at least 40 dead.

Medical personnel from the Order of Malta humanitarian group who assisted the survivors said there were many women and children from sub-Saharan Africa among them.

"Our personnel attended to many cases of hypothermia and dehydration," said the group's Italian head Mauro Casinghini.

Two Italian coast guard vessels and several merchant ships that scrambled to the area were also taking part in the high-seas rescue operation, the navy said, adding that a helicopter had also been deployed.

'Italy recovering dead, living'

Libya has long been a springboard for Africans seeking a better life in Europe and the number of illegal departures from its shores is rising due to clement weather conditions and growing lawlessness.

Hundreds of migrants land in Italy almost every day, most of them asylum-seekers from Eritrea, Somalia and Syria, and many are picked up by Italy's navy.

The latest shipwreck happened at around 1100 GMT on Monday and some 100 nautical miles (185 kilometres, 115 miles) south of Lampedusa island, Italy's southernmost point.

The area is near an offshore oil rig in international waters and is closer to Libya than to Italian shores.

Italian media cited coast guards as saying that some 400 people had been on board the migrant boat, which would leave scores of people still unaccounted for.

"Our ships are there recovering the dead and saving the living. Europe is not helping us," Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said, adding: "The Mediterranean is not an Italian border but a European border".

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton voiced her regret at the migrants' deaths and called on the Libyan authorities "to intensify their efforts to prevent more tragedies in the future."

Immigration charities estimate that some 20,000 migrants have died in the past two decades trying to reach Italy and have called for "humanitarian corridors" to allow asylum-seekers to reach Europe.

ANSA news agency cited rescuers as saying the boat was first spotted by a patrolling Italian coast guard plane that made an emergency call to a merchant ship in the area, which became the first on the scene.

The migrant boat later sank, the report said.

European leaders expressed outrage and called for action, in a repeat of the response to the drowning of more than 400 migrants off Italy in October 2013.

European Parliament president Martin Schulz said in a tweet that he was "shocked" by the tragedy, adding: "EU must take responsibility to protect people and values".

On a visit to Brussels, Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini spoke of a moral duty "as human beings to avoid people dying in the Mediterranean".

'Europe's turn to pay'

Libya said it was not involved in the rescue, with naval spokesman Colonel Ayub Kassem saying the country "does not have the means to help with this shipwreck".

The Libyan navy also said it had intercepted and rescued 340 migrants off the western town of Sabratha when their boat began to take on water. Those aboard were mostly Sudanese and Eritreans.

And on Sunday, the navy said that 36 migrants had perished, 42 were missing and 52 were rescued following another shipwreck closer to its coast.

Italy said last month that more than 20,000 migrants had arrived on its shores this year.

Libya's interim interior minister on Saturday warned that Tripoli could "facilitate" the movement of migrants towards Europe unless the bloc helped it combat the problem.

He said Libya was "suffering" because thousands of mainly sub-Saharan Africans were spreading disease, crime and drugs in the North African nation.