LONDON — The number of people who have died this year trying to cross the central Mediterranean and reach Italian shores has doubled in the past week following a series of especially disastrous shipwrecks, aid organizations said Tuesday.

More than 1,000 people have perished in the past week while seeking passage from the coast of war-scarred Libya, about the same number who had died along the North Africa-to-Italy route earlier in 2016, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) gave a slightly lower figure for the week, recording 880 people drowned. But the refu­gee agency emphasized that its estimate was conservative.

Image: Abandoned migrant boats lie lifeless opposite the port of Lampedusa, Italy, an island which experiences frequent migration from nearby North Africa. Boats like this one are dumped on wasteland once they are recovered by the Italian Coast Guard. UN Photo/UNHCR/Phil Behan.