As many as 900 migrants feared dead in a week of Mediterranean shipwrecks 

Reporting from Rome —  Between 700 and 900 migrants have drowned in the last week trying to cross the Mediterranean, aid agencies said Sunday, as calm weather prompted mass sailings to Europe from Libyan beaches by Africans fleeing oppression and poverty.

The estimates of the dead, based on survivor statements, follow a series of sinkings during the week as about 13,000 migrants were intercepted by rescue vessels outside Libyan waters. Though the weather was favorable, overcrowded dinghies and fishing boats still ran into trouble in open water.

Doctors Without Borders put the death toll at 900, while the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said 700 had drowned.

“Traffickers are using ever more decrepit boats, packing them with unreal amounts of people and sending them to their deaths since they sink after a few hours,” said Giovanna DiBenedetto, a spokeswoman for Save the Children.

“It is difficult to recall so many sinkings in such a short time — it is one after another,” she added.

Details of the biggest tragedy of the week emerged Saturday after migrants taken to the Sicilian port of Pozzallo said a packed fishing boat being towed by a vessel from the Libyan port of Sabratha had sunk. The passengers included women and children.

Witnesses said some passengers scrambled down the tow rope from the boat, which was taking on water, while others tried to swim to the other vessel.

When it went down, 550 were still on board, the UNHCR said. Survivors said that before the boat sank, the towing vessel’s Sudanese pilot cut the taut rope, which whipped back, partly decapitating a woman on the towed boat. The pilot was arrested on arrival in Pozzallo.

On Sunday, an Italian navy ship pulled into the Italian port of Reggio Calabria with 625 migrants it had picked up from three rescues, as well as 45 corpses recovered at the site of one of the rescues. Among the dead were 36 women and three children, Save the Children said.

“Apart from the 45 known dead, survivors are talking of another 100 lost at sea in that sinking,” said DiBenedetto.

Survivors from a boat that capsized Wednesday who were taken to the Sicilian port of Porto Empedocle have reported that up to 200 went down with the boat, while a further 30 migrants were reported drowned when their vessel overturned Thursday.

DiBenedetto said putting precise figures on the dead was difficult because migrants reported lost in one sinking sometimes turned up in different Italian ports.

Some boats might go down and never be reported missing.

Amid praise for rescue efforts, one police official in Sicily sounded a discordant note, saying the presence of so many rescue ships so close to Libya had encouraged traffickers to use more dangerous vessels.

Ships from the Italian navy and coast guard, as well as from two European Union operations, are picking up migrants.

“Because the patrols are so close to Libyan waters now, the traffickers are using any boat they can get their hands on, knowing they only have to stay afloat for six hours before they may be rescued,” said the official, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak.

After an intense week of rescues, none were carried out Sunday. Seas were a bit rougher Sunday, which cut down on potential crossings. But when the weather calms again, a coast guard official said, the smugglers will once again head to sea.

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UPDATES:

3:39 p.m. This article was updated with additional details and quotes from Giovanna Di Benedetto from Save the Children.

This article originally published at 2:12 a.m.