Baby dies on migrant rescue boat

Five more migrants died after dinghy carrying over 100 people capsized in Mediterranean Sea

Refugees and migrants wait to be rescued by members of the Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms, after leaving Libya trying to reach European soil aboard an overcrowded rubber boat in the Mediterranean sea (AP)

A six-month-old baby has died onboard a humanitarian rescue boat, after being pulled from a shipwreck in the central Mediterranean Sea.

The baby boy’s body was airlifted to European soil alongside five other rescued migrants in urgent need of medical care, said the Italian coast guard on Thursday.

Another 257 rescued migrants and five bodies remain on the ship belonging to Spanish sea rescue organisation Open Arms, as it waits to be assigned a port for disembarkation.

The five who were evacuated include a mother, her child and a man, all in serious condition. They were taken to a hospital in Malta, the Italian coast guard said.

The other two are women, one of whom is seven months pregnant. They were taken to the Italian island of Lampedusa, together with the baby’s body.

The organisation wrote on Twitter: “Despite the enormous commitment of our medical team, a six-month-old baby has just died. We requested an urgent evacuation for him and other people in serious conditions, but he didn’t make it. How much pain and sorrow!”

According to Open Arms, the baby boy’s name was Joseph, originally from Guinea. The dinghy he was travelling on with more than 100 migrants had capsized off the coast of Libya, reported The Guardian.

Dramatic footage of the rescue operation was posted on Open Arms’ Twitter account, which showed a woman who had been pulled out of the water crying: “Did you see my baby? I lose my baby! Why me? Why my baby?”

The NGO said the woman was Joseph’s mother, adding: “The desperate cry of a mother in search of her six-month-old baby, amid the chaos.

“We recovered him from the sea in respiratory arrest, he went back, but hours later his small body succumbed.”

A total of 263 migrants who had fled Libya and were trying to reach Europe in unseaworthy boats were rescued by Open Arms between Tuesday and Wednesday from three different shipwrecks in the Mediterranean.

A spokesperson for Open Arms, Laura Lanuza, told The Associated Press that the rescue ship was headed towards Italian territorial waters and was waiting to be assigned a place of safety to disembark the other rescued migrants.

Irene Montero, Spain’s equality minister, said the video of Joseph’s mother was “heartbreaking”.

In a tweet, she said: “We need to hear this heartbreaking cry and feel its pain. We are obliged to stop this human drama on the European shores.

“We need legal and safe ways to migrate, shelter, and memory for the victims [sic].”