Migrant boat capsizes near Egypt killing at least 42

A boat carrying hundreds of migrants has capsized off the coast of Egypt with the loss of 42 lives.

Around 150 people are thought to have been rescued after the vessel overturned shortly after leaving the port of Rashid, near Alexandria.

The migrants, who were described as "illegal" by Egypt's health ministry, were from several African countries and are being taken local hospitals.

Elsewhere in the Mediterranean, Save the Children carried out two migrant rescue missions off the Libyan coast.

Pictures showed the men being rescued from an overcrowded rubber inflatable and transferred from a rescue ship operated by the German humanitarian charity Jugend Rettet, to another run by Save the Children.

It comes months after the head of the EU's border agency warned that growing numbers of Europe-bound migrants were using Egypt as a departure point for the perilous journey.

With the closure of a popular route through Balkans countries, as well as an EU deal to halt departures from Turkey's east coast, asylum seekers are increasingly seeking other routes. 

More than 300,000 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe so far this year from various departure points but particularly from Libya and Egypt.

This figure is down from the 520,000 that made the journey in the first nine months last year.

According to the UN, more than 10,000 people have died crossing the Mediterranean to Europe since 2014.

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