Fifty-four migrants died while attempting the sea journey from Libya to Italy, the UNHCR has reported.

According to the sole survivor, an Eritrean man, 55 people boarded a dinghy in Libya in late June.

He reported that all the other passengers died of dehydration during a 15 day ordeal.

'This is a tragedy,' said T. Alexander Aleinikoff, the UNHCR’s Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees.

Fishermen found the survivor off the Tunisian coast on Monday night. They alerted the Tunisian Coast Guard, who rescued the man. He was immediately taken to a hospital where he was being treated.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.