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Boat carrying up to 700 migrants capsizes in Mediterranean Sea

By Andrew V. Pestano

ROME, April 19 (UPI) -- Rescue operations led by the Italian Coast Guard are underway to rescue up to 700 migrants after their boat capsized in the Mediterranean Sea; hundreds are feared dead.

The boat overturned in Libyan waters around midnight local time on Saturday. There are conflicting reports about the number of people rescued. The Italian Coast Guard said it rescued 28 people and recovered 24 bodies. A spokesman for the International Organization for Migration said that 49 people were rescued and were being taken to Sicily.

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Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said there were 50 survivors and that rescuers were "literally trying to find people alive among the dead floating in the water."

"What is happening now is of epic proportions," Muscat told BBC News. "If Europe, if the global community continues to turn a blind eye... we will all be judged in the same way that history has judged Europe when it turned a blind eye to the genocide of this century and last century."

Migrants fell overboard and the boat capsized as they attempted to get the attention from a passing merchant ship. A distress signal was sent out and it took hours for rescuers to reach them.

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A storm developing in the area could hamper rescue efforts. Three helicopters and twenty ships, including Italian ships, Maltese Navy ships, and commercial vessels, are involved in the rescue operation.

The capsized vessel was large and had multiple floors.

There have been more than 13,000 migrants rescued in the Mediterranean since April 10.

According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 218,000 people crossed the Mediterranean using irregular routes in 2014, of which 3,500 died. Italy alone dealt with about 170,000 such refugees in that time.

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