They were on a vessel which got into trouble off the coast of Libya on Wednesday, and many were rescued by the Irish Navy boat, the LE Niamh.

Despite a significant strengthening of the European maritime rescue operation Triton, whose resources and skills are now similar to those of the former Italian mission Mare Nostrum, the conditions in which migrants try to cross the Mediterranean make every trip perilous. “One of these, along with two others, commanded the boat; the others were tasked with controlling the migrants, impeding them from moving, even by using violence”.

He said he was disappointed that EU ministers had failed late last month to agree on how to distribute a total of 40,000 mostly Syrian and Eritrean migrants from overstretched Italy and Greece.

These shipwrecks draw attention to the staggering numbers of refugees crossing the Mediterranean to reach Europe, often in an attempt to escape war and persecution.

“I think the important point to remember in all of this is had those 20 boats arrived, 200 boats or 2,000 boats would have followed them”, Dutton said.

Five crew members of the capsized vessel were among those disembarking, the Italian news agency ANSA said, and Palermo police were questioning the men – Libyans and Algerians – as smuggling suspects. More than 200 are feared drowned. In April, a fishing boat which reportedly had about 800 aboard overturned and sank as rescuers approached.

“After that he saw that the baby was getting deep in the water”.

The Italian navy said it was handing out life preservers to “numerous” migrants on yet another boat.

A police official told reporters a distraught woman from the boat had been searching for her three children who had gone missing in the crossing.

But the desperate passengers moved to one side of the boat after spotting the rescue ship, causing it to overturn.

In a joint statement released on Thursday, European Commission (EC) First Vice-President Frans Timmermans, High-Representative and Vice-President Federica Mogherini and Migration and Home Affairs Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said that “just one life lost is one too many”.

Rescuers don’t know how many people might have been trapped in the hull of the boat, Doctors Without Borders said. “There were some bodies floating, so it was quite a shocking scene”. “In addition to the counselling services available on board, a Critical Incident Stress Management Team will be deployed to assist the crew”. The overcrowded wooden boat had set out from Zuwarah in Libya, close to the Tunisian border.