'Scores missing' in latest sinking off Libyan coast

Eighty-four people are still missing after an inflatable craft carrying Europe-bound refugees and migrants sank off the coast of Libya, according to survivors cited by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) on Saturday.

Twenty-six people were rescued from the boat which sank on Friday, and were questioned overnight.

"According to testimonies gathered by IOM in Lampedusa 84 people went missing," said IOM spokesman Flavio Di Giacomo on his Twitter feed.

The sinking appears to be the latest deadly tragedy involving refugees and migrants attempting to reach Italy by crossing the Mediterranean from the North African coast.

Migration watchers fear that efforts by the European Union to stem the flow of migrants and refugees crossing from Turkey to Greece will encourage greater numbers to risk the perillous journey from Egypt or Libya.

Earlier this month the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, said that it believed up to 500 people may have died in a sinking off the Libyan coast, citing survivors' accounts.

Members of African communities in Cairo told Middle East Eye that they believed many of the victims had previously lived there and said that many of them were Somali, Ethiopian and Sudanese nationals.