Following the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and collected testimonies of survivors, some 500 migrants are feared dead, after their boat sank in the Mediterranean Sea last week after it had left Egypt on the 6th of September. There are only eleven known survivors in total who, clinging onto floating aids for days, were rescued by different vessels.

Following the IOM, the survivors report of an intentional sinking of their vessel by smugglers:

"The survivors told IOM Tuesday that they already had been forced to change boats three times. When they refused a fourth switch - because they felt the smaller vessel was unsafe – an violent argument ensued. The smugglers threatened that if the passengers did not board the smaller boat they would be returned to Egypt, the survivors told IOM. The migrants persisted saying they would rather return than board the smaller boat. At this stage, according to testimony from four of six survivors, the ten smugglers, said to be Palestinian and Egyptian, began yelling and throwing sticks at the migrants. The smuggler’s vessel approached the boat with migrants some of whom managed to jump into the smaller boat. Witnesses say the smugglers forced them in the water and then rammed the bigger boat. It began to sink immediately while the smugglers stayed in the area until they were certain that the migrant’s vessel had sunk, witnesses said."

IOM's director general, William Lacy Swing called the "numbers dying off Europe's coasts [...] shocking and unacceptable".

(See: http://www.iom.int/cms/en/sites/iom/home/news-and-views/press-briefing-notes/pbn-2014b/pbn-listing/iom-says-new-witnesses-provide-f.html)

The passengers on board were mainly from Palestine, Sudan, Syria and Egypt. Some of the survivors were brought to Sicily and others to Crete. The IOM estimates that there could have been up to 100 children on board.

While the IOM speaks of a case of mass murder, they mainly blame traffickers and only then mention the ever-more restrictive migration routes to Europe. The estimated number of 2500-3000 deaths, which is presumably much higher, cannot be dissociated from processes of externalisation and militarisation of EU borders that leave hardly any other options than to travel on unseaworthy and precarious vessels. The 500 lives lost are, once again, a direct consequence of EU border practices and policies.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein also reacted, calling for the "Mediterranean mass murderers" to be brought to justice. He stated: “The callous act of deliberately ramming a boat full of hundreds of defenceless people is a crime that must not go unpunished. If the survivors’ accounts are indeed true – and they appear all too credible – we are looking at what amounts to mass murder in the Mediterranean.”

"It is the duty of States to investigate such atrocious crimes, bring the perpetrators to justice, and even more importantly to do more to prevent them from happening in the first place. All the countries in the Mediterranean must make a concerted effort to clamp down on the smugglers who are exploiting one of the most vulnerable groups on the planet and endangering their lives, virtually on a daily basis, purely for financial gain.”

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=15069&LangID=E

Amnesty International has reacted to the incident by calling EU member states' responses to refugee crises shameful: "European leaders want to prevent people from reaching Europe at any cost, forcing desperate people to take more hazardous routes. [...] EU leaders have been unwilling to open safe and legal ways for refugees and migrants to reach Europe, and until they change their stance more lives will continue to be lost at sea.”

(See: http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/libya-migrant-boat-sinking-highlights-need-eu-action-2014-09-15)

UPDATE:
Following accounts of survivors, doubt is growing about the version that the IOM has provided concerning the incident. The Syrian survivor Doaa could not confirm the IOM version that traffickers intentionally rammed the boat (see Handelsblatt news report).

The Algerian newspaper El Watan also provides a different version (see FFM report). The crew of the container vessel who rescued some of the survivors and who conducted initial interviews with them, suggests that there were two refugee vessels, one with about 300-400 passengers and one with about 30 passengers. When the smaller vessel started to capsise, it turned to the larger vessel. A collision occurred through which the larger vessel was so badly damaged that it capsised as well. Following FFM, this account contradicts the macabre version offered by the IOM.

Furthermore, the investigation of the shipwreck is conducted by strictly isolating the survivors. It is not clear whether there are 9 or maybe even 20 survivors (in police custory in Greece, Malta or Italy). The bodies that were retrieved were burried without being photographed. The Italian authorities fail to respond to calls voiced (mainly)in Gaza to receive information about the identities of the survivors and the dead.

http://ffm-online.org/2014/09/17/schiffskatastrophe-massenmord-es-waren-2-fluechtlingsboote-el-watan/