400 Migrants Presumed Dead In Shipwreck Off Libya Coast

Rescue teams are presuming that 400 people are dead after a migrant boat capsized off the coast of Libya on Monday.

The aid group Save the Children has announced to media outlets that due to the size of the ship, about 400 people are expected to have died in the Monday incident that occurred in the Mediterranean, as migrants attempted to flee Libya.

The Italian coastguard reportedly helped rescue 144 victims of the capsizing on Monday, and the survivors indicated that several hundreds more had been present on the ship when it capsized. Search and rescue teams also discovered nine bodies in the water.

The Save the Children aid group said in a statement that the shipwreck happened shortly after the boat left the Libyan coast.

 "There were 400 victims in this shipwreck, which occurred 24 hours after [their vessel] left the Libyan coast," the statement said, adding that among the survivors, "There were several young males, probably minors, among the victims" as well as children.

Monday's shipwreck puts focus on the larger issue of a massive migrant influx into Europe from countries like Libya.

This week, the European Union's commissioner for migration, Dimitis Avramopoulos, told a meeting in Brussels that the EU must quickly adapt to the growing number of migrants.

"The unprecedented influx of migrants at our borders, and in particular refugees, is unfortunately the new norm and we will need to adjust our responses accordingly," Avramopoulos said in a statement.

Since last week, the BBC reports that about 8,000 migrants have been picked up traveling from Libya to Italy, and more have been spotted en route to the European country. Italian leaders have instructed officials to house the arriving migrants, many of whom are children.