TWO babies fell into the Mediterranean Sea when a migrant dinghy ripped open – but rescuers only had time to save one of them.
Disturbing footage emerged yesterday showing a distraught mum screaming “I’ve lost my baby” after her six-month-old son Joseph fell into the icy waters on Wednesday.
Rescuers managed to save a three-month-old girl who also fell out of the dilapidated boat which was carrying 113 people.
However, when they managed to locate Joseph, the Guinean-born baby was clinging onto life and later died aboard the rescue ship of respiratory arrest.
He was one of five migrants who passed away when the inflatable vessel capsized after setting sail from Libya en route to Italy.
In the video, Joseph’s mum can be heard saying: “I lost my baby. Did you see my baby? Why me? Why my baby?”
His body was flown by Italian police helicopter to the island of Lampedusa, west of Malta, along with his traumatised mother who was taken to hospital.
Nurse Luca, 30, who works with Spanish NGO Open Arms and Emergency, described seeing the baby being hauled from the freezing, unforgiving water.
She told the Telegraph: “He almost looked like a doll, but he had white foam coming out of his mouth and nose. He was freezing to the touch.
“I have never been in a warzone but this felt like one. Here, in the middle of the sea, people are dying.”
Luca said a “tear in the fabric” of the dinghy sent more than 100 people crashing into the sea.
An official from Open Arms said the Mediterranean was “a cemetery without headstones.”
It’s the latest in a series of tragedies involving at least eight other shipwrecks in the Central Mediterranean since October 1.
In the most recent disaster, 120 people – including women and children – went into the water when the dinghy overturned.
So far, 31 bodies have been found.
It is understood the migrants were heading towards Italy, which is the primary route for those departing mostly from Tunisia and Libya to reach Europe.
Some 30,800 people have arrived so far in 2020, with numbers picking up again after years of decline.
Italy has tried to stop charity rescue ships with huge fines and stepped up support of the Libyan coastguard in its attempts to intercept boats and thwart lucrative people smuggling rackets.
Before the disaster, Open Arms had already rescued 88 migrants the night before – and they were due to head to a third distress call.
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The shipwreck was the second recorded this week in waters north of Libya, a key transit point for migrants from Africa and the Middle East.
On Tuesday another 13 migrants died, including a child, the UN said.
So far this year more than 575 people have perished in the Central Mediterranean trying to reach Europe, according to the International Organisation for Migration.
