Tunisian captain blamed for Mediterranean migrants’ deaths

Prosecutors have blamed the Tunisian captain of a fishing boat for causing the deaths of hundreds of migrants locked below decks when his vessel capsized in the Mediterranean in the weekend shipwreck that has shocked Europe.

Prosecutors have said that Mohammed Ali Malek, age 27, arrested under suspicion of multiple homicide, had steered his severely overloaded boat into a collision with a merchant ship that was coming to its rescue.

Only 28 survivors have been brought to Italy from the hundreds of mainly African and Bangladeshi migrants on board.