The Slatest

200 Migrants Feared Dead as Europe’s Refugee Death Toll Creeps Towards 2,500 This Year 

Migrants arrive on a beach on the Greek island of Kos, after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece, on May 27, 2015.

Photo by ANGELOS TZORTZINIS/AFP/Getty Images

In the latest of what seems to be an accelerating series of now-hourly tragedies, hundreds are feared dead after two small boats carrying up to 500 migrants capsized en route to Italy from Libya. The Libyan coast guard reportedly rescued hundreds and some 200 bodies were discovered on Thursday. “Some of the bodies were taken to shore, but many were left to float in the water overnight, as coastguards did not have enough light to work by,” the Guardian reports.

The migrant crisis on Europe’s shores continues to spiral as the death toll approaches 2,500 this year. On Wednesday, the Italian coast guard found 50 migrants dead, probably killed by asphyxiation, in the hold of a smuggling ship and on Thursday as many as 50 more migrants were found dead in the back of a truck in Austria. This summer has been particularly deadly for those crossing the Mediterranean as Libya teeters; Syria’s political and security unraveling has pushed a new wave of migrants crossing over land through Turkey. Over the weekend, there were desperate scenes of Syrian migrants fighting off Macedonian police at the country’s border with Greece.