Mediterranean's Worst Migrant Boat Disasters

Migrants fleeing conflict, persecution and poverty in countries such as Libya, Syria, Afghanistan and Eritrea enlist people smugglers to help them make the dangerous journey in search of a better life in Europe.

But vessels are often packed and can overturn with deadly consequences, as in the latest incident off the coast of Libya . Migrants can also die of thirst or exposure.

Some of the deadliest incidents, based on bodies recovered or survivor accounts, include:

15 April, 2015: Christian survivors from a boat of African migrants arriving in Palermo, Sicily, tell Italian authorities that Muslim passengers threw 12 migrants overboard to their deaths when fighting broke out on board.

12 April, 2015: Nine confirmed dead after boat capsizes off Libya. Some of the 144 survivors tell aid workers that about 400 aboard drowned .

8-9 February, 2015: At least 29 die and 300 people reported missing after four boats become waterlogged in the frigid sea after leaving Libya.

14 September, 2014: Libyan navy reports 26 rescued from a boat carrying 250 migrants off Libyan coast. About 200 missing and presumed dead.

10 September, 2014: Some 500 Syrians, Palestinians, Egyptians and Sudanese drown after their boat is rammed by another boat of human traffickers off Malta.

6 February, 2014: At least 15 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa die while swimming from Moroccan coast as they try to reach Spanish enclave of Ceuta. Police fire rubber bullets at the swimmers to force them back to Morocco.

20 January, 2014: Twelve people, including nine children, drown when boat overturns near Greek island of Farmakonis.

3 October, 2013: Some 366 people die, 155 survive after shipwreck off Lampedusa.

10 August, 2013: Six migrants drown, 94 rescued some 15 metres (50 feet) off a crowded swimming beach in Catania, Sicily.

14-15 December, 2012: At least 21 people die, six missing after boat sinks off Greek island of Lesbos.

10 July, 2012: A motorised rubber dinghy deflates between Libya and Lampedusa; 54 die.

2 June, 2011: At least 270 missing from boat with 700 aboard sinks off Tunisian coast.

6 May, 2011: Boat carrying more than 600 migrants is shipwrecked off Libyan coast. Hundreds reported missing.

12 May, 2008: 50 dead off Sicily, including 47 who died aboard after suffering from exposure.

20 October, 2003: At least 70 dead in waters off Sicily.

20 June, 2003: 50 corpses found, 160 migrants missing, 41 survivors in a shipwreck off Tunisia.

Christmas 1996: 300 believed drowned in the waters between Malta and Sicily.