At least 50 migrants are missing after a large rubber dinghy sank in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya, Italian officials said Wednesday.<br /><br /> Rescuers managed to pull fifty two migrants to safety; a naval ship rushed to the scene after the dinghy appeared to be deflating and dropped life rafts into the sea.<br /><br /> Those migrants who have been accounted for have been taken to the Italian island of Lampedusa.<br /><br /> Immigrants have been arriving in a similar fashion on the Greek island of Kos.<br /><br /> Hundreds of people arrive on the country’s eastern Aegean islands daily from Turkey. Most of them are fleeing conflict or persecution in Syria and Afghanistan.<br /><br /> The UN refugee agency says at least 124,000 people have done so in the first seven months of this year alone.<br /><br /> That is up by 750 percent from the same period last year<br /><br /> Greece has become Europe’s main entry point for boat people.<br /><br /> The alternative route from north Africa to Italy is now increasingly dangerous owing to fighting in Libya.
