At least 200 migrants from Libya die in Mediterranean en route to Italy

More than 200 migrants died trying to cross from Libya to Europe, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) said Wednesday. A fourth boat carrying another 300 refugees is missing. The boats left Libya on Sunday, and before the 203 migrants — as young as 12 — were "swallowed by the sea," as UNCHR spokeswoman Carlotta Sami put it, 29 had died of hypothermia while crossing the frigid Mediterranean.

The UNCHR sharply criticized the European Union's Triton rescue mission as being ineffective, since it only patrols a few miles off of Italy's coast. Italy's more expansive Mare Nostrum rescue operation was phased out when the EU took over migrant patrols, The Associated Press reports.

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