At least 441 migrants died between January and March 2023, while crossing the Central Mediterranean to Europe, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on Wednesday.

Noting that the fatality was highest since 2017, IOM said delays in state-led search and rescue (SAR) operations played a part in the perilous sea crossing from north Africa.

According to the IOM, the 441 known deaths was likely an undercount of the true number.

“The persisting humanitarian crisis in the central Mediterranean is intolerable. With more than 20,000 deaths recorded on this route since 2014, I fear that these deaths have been normalised. States must respond.

“The complete absence of response to a seventh case claimed the lives of at least 73 migrants”, IOM chief, Antonio Vitorino, said in a statement, adding that non-governmental organisations’ SAR efforts have markedly diminished in recent months.

The UN agency’s Missing Migrants Project is also investigating several cases in which boats were reported missing, where there are no records of survivors, no remains and no SAR operations.

The fates of more than 300 people aboard those vessels remain unclear, the organisation said.

The IOM said that over the Easter weekend, 3,000 more migrants reached Italy.

“Numbers of boat landings have surged this year, with almost 32,000 migrants arriving on Italy’s shores since January, compared to 8,000 over the same period in 2022”, the Italian interior ministry said.

Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni’s government, which took office in October, promising to end mass migration, late Tuesday, declared a six-month state of emergency on immigration and allocated an additional five million euros ($5.5 million) to managing the issue.

Meloni said this would enable “more effective and timely responses” including providing better reception and processing facilities.