Harrowing underwater footage of the migrant ship that sunk killing more than 300 last autumn has emerged, following another tragic shipwreck off the coast of Lampedusa.
As police divers explore the sunken wreck, the bodies of those that did not survive can be seen on board and scattered on the surrounding sea bed .
In one heartbreaking image a young couple had remained in a loving embrace even as they drowned.
Clinging to each other in the shadow of the
sunken hull, this young couple are united even in death. Harrowing
underwater footage of the migrant ship that sunk killing more than 300
last autumn has emerged, following another tragic shipwreck off the
coast of Lampedusa
The ship caught fire and sank last September, just two miles off the island of Lampedusa, killing 366 migrants mostly Somalis and Eritreans.
Following the disaster, the worst since 2000, and amid much soul searching, the Italian navy and coastguard stepped up rescue operations.
But the authorities have struggled to intercept boats as gangs of smugglers, encouraged by the rescue efforts, have increased the number of crossings. Already this year 36,000 migrants have landed by boat in Italy, eight-fold last year's arrivals.
This week a boat carrying hundreds of migrants sunk 100 miles south of Lampedusa. Despite desperate rescue attempts, at least 17 migrants drowned, with many more still missing. Last week at least 40 perished in another wreck when their trawler sank off the coast of Libya.
The release of the footage following the new tragedies recalls the full horror of last year's wreck when rescue workers described 'a cemetery in the sea'.
At the time police diver Renato Sollustri said he had not slept since he brought up two corpses, a baby hidden in the folds of his mother's white leggings, under pulled-down trousers.
He said: 'It was three in the afternoon when we finally got into the last cabin in the bow after having got past a wall of bodies.' The divers still had ten minutes oxygen left when they got through a wall of bodies to the last cabin in the bow and saw a mother with a baby bump.
He told La Repubblica: 'We couldn't leave without doing something for her. We took her out forming a human chain with our arms. Then we lay her on the sea bed. With a rope we joined her to the other bodies and with buoyancy aids we took them towards the light.
'It wasn't until we passed the body to our colleagues in the boat that they made the shocking discovery-in her leggings was a newborn baby. None of us could believe it. We all began to cry-my mask was full of tears.'
The police marshall said he had never before lost control in the job. 'But in front of that newborn baby I lost my cool. The baby may never have seen light- only the darkness at the bottom of the sea. It was a horrible job.'
Earlier today the body of a
migrant who tried to flee Africa for a new life in Europe washed up
on a Libyan beach.
The
gruesome discovery was made on the shore of al-Qarboli, east of Tripoli
days after the trawler he is thought to have been travelling on sank
off the Libyan coast claiming at least 17 lives.
The sinking, which has so far led to two arrests, comes amid claims
hundreds of thousands more would-be illegal immigrants are preparing to
set sail for southern Italy. 
Those rescued from the sunken ship were taken by the Italian navy to Catania harbour in Sicily
The ship, Grecale was sent to rescue the migrants off the coast of Tripoli where they were stranded
17 bodies have so far been recovered by the Italian navy. Here coffins containing the bodies were carried off the rescue ship
The body,
which has not yet been identified, is one of 17 so far recovered while
206 people were rescued by patrol boats and merchant ships from the
wreck in international waters between Libya and Italy.
Italian
media have cited coastguards as saying there were around 400 people on
board, which would mean dozens are still unaccounted for. Survivors include two Eritrean children who lost their parents and siblings.
Italian
authorities have now detained two Tunisians suspected of smuggling
migrants aboard the boat having arrested them on suspicion of murder.
Italy,
with its southernmost island, Lampedusa, just 70 km off the coast of
Africa, is the first port of call for many seeking a new life in Europe.
Now the country has threatened to send asylum-seekers across Europe without more help to stem the tide of arrivals.
So
far this year more than 36,000 migrants have arrived by boat on Italy’s
shores, with authorities warning the rate is even faster than the
record number of 2011 during the Arab Spring.
Migrant
traffickers often mix with their passengers only to abandon them when
accomplices in speedboats arrive to return the smugglers to base.
Italian intelligence says that another 800,000 would-be migrants are on the African coastline ready to set sail.
Italy’s
Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said that, without more help with sea
patrols, Italy would defy EU rules obliging migrants to stay in the
country where they land and allow them to travel on to northern Europe.
'We'll just let them go,' he said.
'Since migrants do not want to stay in
Italy, they should have the opportunity to exercise their right of
political asylum in the rest of Europe. Otherwise we transform Italy
into the prison of political refugees.'
Survivors of the sunken vessel were temporarily taken to a sports hall in Catania where they were given makeshift beds
The migrants are staying there while police and mediators work on identification and reunification of families
Officials list the identifications of migrants
in a sports hall in Catania which has been converted into a makeshift
home for survivors
He said that Europe should intercept migrants in Libya, setting up camps and offering humanitarian aid to migrants, before they set sail for Europe.
‘The humanitarian reception must start in Africa. Europe must go there, put up tents and take care of migrants there,’ he added.
The
Interior Minister of Libya Saleh Maziq said that they could not cope
with the influx of migrants transiting through from sub Saharan Africa
saying that ‘Europe must pay the price’.
Libya
has descended into lawless chaos since the failure of the Arab Spring,
powerless to stop the criminal gangs of human traffickers shipping
thousands of migrants to Europe, often on overcrowded and unseaworthy
vessels.
After
the tragic shipwreck that killed more than 300 off the island of
Lampedusa last autumn, an EU wide sea patrol from Malta was planned, but
has so far failed to materialise.
DM
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