UN: 2016 the deadliest year for refugees fleeing conflict and poverty

This year has been the deadliest ever for migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe, with at least 3,800 people having drowned, the UN refugee agency said Wednesday.

William Spindler, spokesman for UN refugee agency, announced the grim milestone on Twitter.

More migrant deaths were reported off the Libyan shore on Wednesday, as the European Union’s border and coastguard agency Frontex warned that rescue missions near the troubled North African nation were getting ever more dangerous.

The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity said one of its rescue vessels picked up 25 bodies and 107 survivors from an overcrowded rubber boat some 26 nautical miles (48 kilometres) off the coast of Libya.

A further 139 survivors were on a nearby rubber raft.