At least 239 migrants have died in two ship wrecks off Libya, the United Nations said on Thursday.
Carlotta Sami, a spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, said the information was confirmed by two survivors brought ashore on the Italian island of Lampedusa.
Leonard Doyle, chief spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, said 4,220 lives had now been lost in the Mediterranean so far this year.