The German charity organization Lifeline also said that Malta had refused their request to supply water and food for migrants aboard the rescue ship, which is carrying over a hundred people on board.

The Spanish rescue ship was stranded at sea for 19 days, awaiting permission to dock. Finally, the prosecutor’s office in Sicily ordered the evacuation of the boat due to deteriorating health conditions.

The ship, with 121 migrants onboard, now awaits the Spanish government’s approval to dock at a safe port after being denied permission by Malta and Italy.

The tragedy, the biggest of its kind this year, has intensified the UN refugee agency’s calls to open safe pathways for refugees who otherwise take perilous journeys to escape poverty and war.

The number of migrants attempting the perilous Mediterranean crossing has increased after the recent escalation of civil war in Libya.

The people on the boat had set off from Zuwara in Libya towards Europe in an inflatable boat, which sank nine miles away from the Tunisian port town of Zarzis.

On June 29, Italian authorities arrested Carola Rackete, the captain of an NGO rescue ship, Sea Watch 3 carrying 42 migrants to the Italian port at Lampedusa.

Carola Rackete is the captain of the Sea Watch 3 which rescued 53 migrants from the Mediterranean Sea around 30 NM off the Libyan coast. The boat was denied permission to dock in Lampedusa for 14 days following which it approached the port without permission

The Bangladeshi nationals and their fellow refugees were headed to Europe when their boat capsized. They were rescued by another vessel which was not allowed permission to dock by Tunisian authorities