It comes as European Union ministers file into a Luxembourg meeting to discuss the migrant crisis after 700 people drowned off the Libyan coast last weekend.

The International Organisation for Migrations says the caller told them 20 people had already died on the sinking ship carrying more than 300 passengers.

Three more boats need help in international waters.

Europe’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini says the EU has a political and moral duty to respond to the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean.

Southern European nations maintain the EU’s credibility is now at stake following last year’s reduction in search-and-rescue efforts on what the UN says has become the world’s deadliest migrant route.

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