article_snippet.sent: (CNN)The boat that sank in the Mediterranean over the weekend with hundreds of migrants on board may have capsized after being touched or swamped by a cargo ship that came to (CNN)The boat that sank in the Mediterranean over the weekend with hundreds of migrants on board aid, a U.N. official said.
article_snippet.sent: The conflicting accounts of the chaotic events highlight the challenges faced by commercial vessels that are often called upon to help in the escalating migrant boat crisis in the Mediterranean.
article_snippet.sent: The likely toll makes the sinking the deadliest known disaster involving migrants crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa.
article_snippet.sent: The sinking appears to be the worst among an intensifying spate of migrant boat disasters in the Mediterranean to which European governments are struggling to respond.
article_snippet.sent: Vast numbers of people fleeing violence and poverty have been setting out on the risky journey across the Mediterranean to southern Europe for years, but authorities have reported a sharp increase this month in the numbers in need of rescue.
article_snippet.sent: The International Organization for Migration said Monday that more than 1,100 people were estimated to have drowned in the waters between Libya and Italy just in the past week.
article_snippet.sent: The International Organization for Migration reported Monday that three other migrant boats could be in distress in international waters.
article_snippet.sent: Shipping companies recently warned that European governments are putting what European governments say is an unfair burden on European governments vessels to come to the aid of migrant boats in trouble.
article_snippet.sent: We believe it is unacceptable that the international community is increasingly relying on merchant ships and seafarers to undertake more and more large-scale rescues, with single ships having to rescue as many 500 people at a time," the European Community Shipowners Associations said in a letter to EU leaders last month.
article_snippet.sent: Commercial ships are not equipped to undertake such large-scale rescues, which also create serious risks to the safety, health and welfare of ships' crews who should not be expected to deal which such situations," a letter to EU leaders said.
article_snippet.sent: Commercial ships rescued more than 40,000 people in the Mediterranean last year, according to the International Organization for Migration.
article_snippet.sent: That's higher than the more than 35,000 people saved by the Italian Coast Guard but lower than the 80,000 rescued by the Italian Navy, which was running a special program, Mare Nostrum, for most of the year.
highlights_snippet.sent: UNHCR spokeswoman tells CNN that a cargo ship may have touched the migrant boat .
  