The ship, with about 400 people on board, is drifting between Greece and Malta and taking on water, Alarm Phone support said after a surge in the number of migrant ships crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa.

Alarm Phone said on Twitter that it received a call from a ship that left Tobruk, Libya overnight, and informed the authorities. But authorities have yet to launch a rescue operation, they added.

German NGO Sea-Watch International said on its Twitter account that it had found the ship with two merchant ships nearby, adding that the Maltese authorities had ordered the ships not to carry out rescue operations and that one of them had simply been asked to refuel.

The alarm signaled that people on board were panicking, some of them needed medical attention. The boat ran out of fuel, the lower deck was full of water, and the captain was gone, and there was no one to steer her.

Another NGO, Germany’s RESQSHIP, said on Sunday that at least 23 migrants had died overnight in the Mediterranean in the sinking of another ship.

Last week, 440 migrants were rescued off the coast of Malta after a difficult 11-hour operation in rough seas by MSF’s Geo Barents.

Source: Reuters.