ROME- Almost 40 migrants have died after a rubber dinghy carrying 120 migrants began to capsize on Wednesday morning off the Libyan coastline, according to survivors interviewed by Save the Children.

“We have spoken with many of them” says Giovanna di Benedetto, UNCHR spokeswoman “and all the victims were from Sub-Saharan countries."

Among the victims were many children and women, which drowned after the rubber dinghy started letting in water not far from the Tripoli area.

According to one of the survivors “the quality of the rubber was very bad and as soon as we were on the sea, the boat started to lose parts.”

Officials report that around 80 survived, having been rescued by a mercantile ship and later transported to Sicily’s Augusta port by German military ship Holstein, together with other migrants rescued off various vessels in distress.

On Thursday, a total of 283 migrants have been rescued by the Holstein and brought to Augusta port. The majority of them are refugees from Somalia, Eritrea, Mali and Benin.

On the same day, a further 669 immigrants were brought to the Italian shoreline by two other rescue ships, equalling around 982 survivors that have landed on Italian territory in just a single day.

Italy is facing the biggest migration influx in recent times, becoming the main safe harbour for refugees- especially from Africa and the Middle East - seeking better life conditions.

With roughly 85,000 migrants landed on the peninsular so far, the situation is getting out of control, with the risk of boosting social instability across the country, with the rise of a fervent racism and nationalism coming from the autochthone population.  

The EU’s ineptitude could perhaps be to blame, for the lack of provision of a reliable and trustworthy solution to tackle the migrant issue. As such, estimates report that since January almost 1,900 migrants have died trying to reach the other side of the coast, a number that will increase if authorities continue to ignore the problem.