No less than 500 migrants feared dead after smugglers rammed and sank his boat in the Mediterranean last week, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Monday, quoting survivors. 

Two Palestinians plucked from the water by a freighter on Thursday after their boat sank off Malta said the organization had produced about 500 passengers on the ship, which sank in effect for the traffickers. 

"Two survivors brought to Sicily told us that there had been at least 500 people on board. Further nine survivors were rescued by Greek and Maltese ships, but everything else seems to have perished," Flavio Di Giacomo, spokesman for the IOM in Italy, said AFP. 

Details of the wreck could not be verified independently. According to survivors, the Syrian immigrants, Palestinians, Egyptians and Sudanese left Damietta in Egypt on 6 September, and were forced to change boats several times during the voyage to Europe. 

Traffickers, who were in a separate pot, then ordered them to another, smaller ship, many of the immigrants feared it was too small to contain. 

When they refused to cross the new boat, furious traffickers reportedly rammed his boat until it sank, the police organization said.Italian have opened an investigation into the sinking. 

According to the Italian Navy, some 2,380 migrants and asylum seekers were rescued over the weekend by the naval deployment on a large scale in Italy called "Mare Nostrum", launched after more than 400 people were killed in two wrecks in October last.