RaiNews24 television, reporting from the Navy rescue coordination centre in Rome, said the dead migrants were found in the hold of the overcrowded boat.

Italy’s navy has carried out a dramatic rescue of 52 migrants from a sinking rubber dinghy in the Mediterranean, but a further 50 people are still missing.

The Mediterranean has become the world’s most deadly crossing point for migrants.

Migrants fleeing war and persecution have also been murdered, thrown overboard and died of dehydration on their journeys.

Rescues off the Italian and Greek coasts meanwhile are occurring at a rate of more than 1,000 migrants per day, according to IOMC.

According to Rai 24, Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano called on the global community that Saturday’s new tragedy will not be the last one if the problems in Libya are not solved.

“We saw this boat filled up to unimaginable levels”, Admiral Pierpaolo Ribuffo said. Hundreds were rescued from that boat by the Irish navy.

The worldwide Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that at least 2,300 people have died over the past eight months while trying to make the perilous crossing into Europe.

Another 200 are feared dead after their boat capsized off Libya on 5 April.

Europe continues to be affected by an unprecedented influx of refugees, with 250 000 migrants having crossed into the continent by boat this year alone. The violence escalated after the 2011 ouster and killing of longtime Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.