© EPA/HO40 migrants are said to have suffocated in the boat’s hold
At least 40 people have died after apparently suffocating in the water-logged hold of a fishing boat in the Mediterranean.
The boat, which was carrying migrants fleeing Libya, took on water and it's believed that victims suffocated after inhaling fumes from fuel.
Italian Navy Commander Massimo Tozzi described the tragic scenes witnessed after his men boarded the boat.
They found the dead in the hold 'immersed in water, fuel and human excrement'.
Migrants who have arrived in Italy say human traffickers based in Libya charge them between $1,200 (£767) and $1,800 (£1150) for a place on the deck of boats.
Those crammed in the hold pay about half as much as those above.
Admiral Pierpaolo Libuffo, head of Italy's rescue operations, said 312 survivors had been taken on board, including 45 women and 3 children.
He added that seven dead bodies had been recovered, but around 30 others were still in the hold. The boat was being towed to the Italian island of Lampedusa.
'Either the international community does something to resolve the Libyan situation or this will not be the last tragedy,' Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said.
© ReutersAn Italian Navy spokesman said the hold was swimming with fuel fumes and excrement
Last Tuesday, up to 50 immigrants went missing when a large rubber dinghy sank.
And earlier this month around 200 migrants were presumed dead off the coast of Libya when their boat capsized
More than 2,300 people fleeing war and poverty have died this year in attempts to reach Europe by boat, compared with 3,279 deaths during the whole of last year, the International Organisation for Migration said.
The Geneva-based organisation said the number of migrants who have crossed the Mediterranean so far this year is approaching a quarter of a million, compared with 219,000 for all of last year.
The issues with illegal immigration is a perfect example of how the media totally distracts the people from looking at the causes of the problem being described. The question that needs to be asked is why these people are so desperate to leave their home country. How could things get so bad to cause these people to risk their lives on the "promise" of a better life. The immigration issue reminds me of the pharmaceutical companies and how they look at disease and the development of treatment. Their focus is not about finding cures it is about addressing the symptoms with more and more products that they can sell forever instead of a one time cure. Instead of looking at the source of the problem we are focused on the effects of the problem and the fallout from the evil and cruel decisions made earlier. Instead of holding those responsible for the evil decisions we are focused on how we are now made to feel guilty that we are not providing enough or sufficient aid to keep the desperate immigrants from loosing their lives in their attempts to flee the results of the evil actions. It sounds like a broken record repeated over and over, but no one seem capable of moving to address the real and permanent solutions.