APR 20 2016, 9:50 AM ET

Up To 500 Migrants Feared Drowned Off Libya: UNHCR

by F. BRINLEY BRUTON

Up to 500 migrants trying to reach Europe may have drowned off north Africa last week, the United Nations' refugee agency said Wednesday, although exact details of the tragedy remained unclear.

"If confirmed, as many as 500 people may have lost their lives when a large ship went down in the Mediterranean Sea at an unknown location between Libya and Italy," UNHCR said in a statement.

A UNHCR team on Tuesday interviewed some of the 41 survivors who were rescued and taken to the Greek island of Kalamata, the statement added. Those rescued include 23 Somalis, 11 Ethiopians, 6 Egyptians and a Sudanese, according to the agency.

The survivors told the UNHCR they had been part of a group of between 100 and 200 who departed last week from near Tobruk in Libya on a 33-yard long boat.

After a few hours, the smugglers in charge of the boat tried to transfer the passengers onto a larger ship carrying hundreds more people in "terribly overcrowded conditions," UNHCR added. The larger boat capsized and sank during the transfer, the survivors said.

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