Migrant crisis: Desperate mother screams for lost baby as dinghy sinks

Heartbreaking footage of a mother screaming that she has lost her baby as a migrant boat sinks in the Mediterranean Sea has been released by a charity.

"I'm not going to see my baby. I lost my baby. Why me? Where's my baby?" the woman cries at her rescuers from the bottom of a large dinghy belonging to the Spanish Open Arms NGO.

She can be seen leaning on the edge of the boat and desperately searching the water where other migrants are being rescued.

Another overcrowded dinghy can be seen carrying lots of migrants as others try to climb on to it from the sea.

Open Arms said there were about 100 migrants on the boat when it started to sink off the Libyan coast, with the rescue operation lasting all night.

The woman's six-month-old baby, Joseph, was later found to have drowned along with five other migrants.

They were all taken via the Italian Coast Guard's helicopter to a hospital in Malta, with the baby's body was seen being carried off the aircraft.

Joseph has now been buried on the Italian island of Lampedusa where his mother was taken by the charity.

Open Arms said it released the footage to draw attention to the dangers migrants encounter when crossing the Mediterranean, particularly because European nations have clamped down on rescue ships operating in the area.