Human traffickers crammed people onto an already overcrowded ship, causing it to sink, the U.N. refugee agency said on Wednesday.
Somalia's government believes that about 200 or more Somalis may have died in the tragedy. The UNHCR agency said the overall death toll might have been much higher after talking with some survivors.
"If confirmed, as many as 500 people may have lost their lives when a large ship went down in the Mediterranean Sea at an unknown location between Libya and Italy," the UNHCR said.
The agency said the survivors, which included 37 men, three women and a three-year-old child, were rescued by a merchant ship and taken to Greece on April 16.
The survivors said they were among 100 to 200 who set sail from Libya to Italy. The traffickers then attempted to transfer them to a bigger ship which was already fully packed with migrants.
This ship sank before the survivors could board it and they drifted at the sea for up to three days before being saved.
According to the Somali government, the ship which capsized set sail from Egypt.
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