Search for migrants from overturned boat in Med goes on

Police arrested the five men after speaking to numerous survivors during the night after they arrived in Palermo.

The suspects are three Libyans and two Algerians.

Italian police have arrested five people from Algeria, Tunisia and Libya on murder and human trafficking charges.

So far, 373 migrants have been rescued and 25 bodies have been recovered since the boat sank Wednesday, Cmdr. It has become a grimly familiar sight, made only slightly more palatable by the success this week of the Irish navy and the Italian coast guard in fishing 400 migrants safely out of the water.

The truly horrific details of some the migrants emerged today as many told police and the life-saving crews of the LE Niamh that they were stabbed and attacked during the perilous journey.

“On order of the smugglers, the migrants tried desperately to throw the water out”, says a statement from Italian police.

The vessel was estimated to have been carrying 600 migrants. They were beaten back with knives, clubs and belts.

The father’s heroic effort to save his wife and their toddler was among the most dramatic stories to emerge from two days of disasters for migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean.

According to the UNHCR, the boat, crammed on one side with migrants desperate to draw the attention of a nearby Irish naval vessel, capsized after having transmitted numerous distress signals prior to the incident.

The mass drowning follows a string of similar tragedies in the Mediterranean that have already claimed some 2,000 lives this year, according to the global Organization for Migration.

In April, a 20-metre (66-foot) vessel capsized as it approached a merchant ship that had come to its assistance, and no fewer than 900 people were killed.

“We need to be present, close to them, to help them to share their suffering”, she said.

This summer’s mass arrivals in both Italy and Greece show the crisis is worsening.

Migrants paid $1,200 to $1,800 each to cross the Mediterranean as they fled war, persecution and poverty.

Numerous newcomers look to move swiftly to wealthier northern Europe, including to Britain from Calais, France. Not for tourists or pleasure boating, but for the hundreds of migrants who every day crowd aboard rickety ships to cross the Mediterranian Sea.