The Italian navy has released pictures of the doomed migrant boat carrying up to 800 people which sank in the Mediterranean in April.
The pictures were taken by two minesweepers that located the vessel’s wreckage in waters off the Libya coast at a depth of nearly 375 metres.
Only 28 people were rescued in the incident, which happened in an area just off Libyan waters 210 km off the coast of Lampedusa and 27 km from the Libyan coast.
The boat was believed to have capsized when migrants moved to one side of the vessel when a merchant ship approached.
The disaster was one of the worst during the decades-long migrant crisis in the southern Mediterranean and brought the total number of dead since the beginning of the year to more than 1,500.
In 2014, more than 170,000 people illegally crossed the Mediterranean and more than 3,200 died in the attempt. Ten times more people have reportedly died since January this year compared to the same period last year.
Taking advantage of calm seas due to the change of seasons in the Mediterranean and the growing lawlessness and anarchy in Libya -- the last point on one of the main transit routes to Europe – smugglers are sending more migrants in dangerously overcrowded boats. The shaky boats often capsize and lose power in the middle of the perilous journey.
While the European Union has stepped up its sea mission, Italy remains the country that hosts most of the arrivals in immigration centres.
At least 33,000 migrants have reached Italy so far this year using sea routes. On the whole, the country is expecting to receive up to 200,000 people in 2015. According to Italy's interior ministry officials the influx of migrants in the country has already created a ‘very difficult’ situation.
