Hundred migrants missing in Mediterranean after shipwreck

The bodies of three babies were recovered and brought ashore Libya on Friday, victims of a Mediterranean shipwreck that might have killed 100 migrants.

They were onboard a migrant boat carrying 120 other passengers when their inflatable craft began to sink, survivors taken to al-Hmidiya, east of the capital Tripoli, said, according to AFP.

Sixteen people were rescued, while the missing included two babies and three children under the age of 12.

Survivors told the news agency that the boat sank a few hours after its pre-dawn departure from Garaboulli, east of Tripoli, after an explosion caused a fire on the motor and the vessel began to sink.

The passengers included several Moroccan families, none of whom survived.

"When I saw the number of people on the boat, I refused to get on board, because we had been told that we would be 20 (passengers)," said survivor Amri Swileh, from Yemen.

Showing his bruised arms, the 26-year-old said he was threatened by smugglers and forced onto the boat.

"I lost all of my Yemeni friends who were with me. All five of them are missing," he said.

Up to 15 women were on board the vessel, with the 16 rescued passengers all young men coming from countries including Gambia, Zambia and Sudan.

The only bodies recovered were those of the three babies, while the rest of the dead were left at the scene "for lack of resources", a Libyan coastguard employee said.

Salem al-Qadhi, a coastguard captain, said he was shocked when he reached the site of the incident.

"It was horrible to see," he said. 

Fishermen had spotted the migrant vessel in difficulty and contacted the Libyan coastguard.

The Libyan branch of the United Nation's migration agency said it was supporting the 16 "traumatised" survivors, noting that there had been further rescue operations off the coast.

An additional 345 migrants had been brought ashore in Tripoli and were receiving humanitarian assistance, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) wrote on Twitter.

Libyan authorities have rescued hundreds of migrants in recent days. More than a thousand migrants have died so far this year, attempting to reach Europe.

European countries affected by the migrant crisis met to discuss the issue on Friday.

A number of EU states have clashed over which countries should accept the thousands of migrants coming to Europe's shores.

NGOs have slammed the new measures, which they say will put more lives at risk.