AKIPRESS.COM - Dozens of migrants are missing after a rubber boat they were on sank off the coast of Libya, local officials say, BBC reports

One official is quoted as saying 63 migrants have disappeared after Sunday's incident east of Tripoli, while 41 people have been rescued.

About 170 migrants have gone missing in the Mediterranean Sea since Friday.

Smugglers are exploiting migrants desperate to get to the EU before it tightens its borders, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) says.

"There is an alarming increase in deaths at sea off Libya's coast," IOM's Libya Chief of Mission Othman Belbeisi said.

More than 1,000 people have died while sailing from Libya to Europe so far this year.