A boat filled with up to 250 migrants heading for Europe sank off of the Libyan coast, and scores of immigrants are feared drowned.  Only 26 people have been rescued and the rag tag fleet of private boats that passes for the Libyan Coast Guard had few resources to search for survivors.

“There are so many dead bodies floating in the sea,” said Libyan navy spokesman Ayub Qassem.

Libya has been mired in political chaos since the overthrow and killing of dictator Moammar Kadhafi in 2011.  Human traffickers have taken advantage of the void and used the unpatrolled coasts to launch overcrowded and rickety boats across the Mediterranean Sea to Italy and Greece, where immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East would apply for asylum.

Italy says more than 100,000 have survived such journeys so far this year.  Hundreds have not.