“As many as 500 people may have drowned last week after a boat ferrying migrants and refugees capsized at an unknown location between Libya and Italy,” HCR said on Wednesday. Forty survivors of the tragedy from Somali, Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan, who were able to reach the shores of Greece, told the agency that 480 people might have perished in shipwreck.

A boat boarding hundreds supposedly sank mid-way between Greece and Egypt. Somali authorities confirmed the information after the families of victims testified.

According to Italian government, due to the agreement between Europe and Turkey that closes Balkans roads, immigrants pass by other routes, which are longer and riskier.

HCR said that with this tragedy, the number of refugees to have died in the Mediterranean exceeded 1250 people. With spring coming, more may attempt to cross the sea thus more might lose their lives in shipwrecks similar to last week’s. Last year, 800 people died in such a shipwreck.