Up to 700 people are feared dead after the boat went down just off Libyan waters, 120 miles south of Lampedusa. 28 surivors have been recovered so far.
Speaking in the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Nigel Farage has blamed "fanatical" David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy for the crisis, saying it was "directly caused" by western intervention in the civil war in Libya.
The Ukip leader said NATO destabilised Libya when it launched bombing raids against Colonel Gaddafi four years ago.
He said Britain should offer refugee status to some Christians from the region.
Mr Farage has rejected calls for a stronger European response to the crisis and said: "It was the European response that caused this problem in the first place.
"The fanaticism of Sarkozy and Cameron to bomb Libya. They have completely destabilised Libya, to turn it into a country with much savagery, to turn it into a place where for Christians the place is now virtually impossible.
"We ought to be honest and say we have directly caused this problem.
"There were no migrants coming in these quantities before we bombed the country, got rid of Gaddafi, however bad he might have been, and destabilised the whole situation."
"I have not got a problem with us offering refugee status to some Christians from those countries."
