The death toll from a migrant boat carrying African migrants headed to Europe that sank the Mediterranean coast near the Egyptian city of Alexandria on Wednesday has climbed to 148, a provincial official tells state television. The number of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea from Egypt to Europe has increased significantly in the past year, EU border agency Frontex said earlier this month. "Egypt is starting to become a departure country," Frontex chief Fabrice Leggeri said in an interview with the Funke group of German regional newspapers in June.