ROME - Interior Minister, Angelino Alfano has said that two men who were allegedly at the helm of the ship, which capsized in the Mediterranean on Sunday leaving an estimated 850 dead, have been arrested. This move has come as prosecutors in Sicily claim the captain, perhaps in an effort to hide his identity, rammed a Portuguese freighter, which had been called to aid the situation.

 Tunisian national, Mohammed Ali Malek, has been revealed by prosecutors in Sicily as the captain of the ill-fated vessel and is under arrest on suspicion of reckless multiple homicide and aiding illegal immigration. His first mate, Syrian Mahmud Bikhit has also been detained on suspicion of aiding illegal immigration. According to prosecutors, the movement of migrants on the overcrowded vessel triggered the disaster, which was exacerbated by a collision with the King Jacob freighter.

 The 27 confirmed survivors from the tragedy have now arrived in Sicily, having been rescued by the Italian coastguard, with several claiming that the migrants were locked in the hold of the fishing boat. This, along with revelations about the collision with the King Jacob, would go some way to explaining how the incident led to such a tragic loss of life.

 Early reports on Tuesday indicated that the Portuguese freighter could well have rammed the migrant ship by accident, but the captain of the freighter has since been absolved of any wrongdoing.

 "On the basis of what has emerged, no blame can be placed  to the crew of the merchant ship which came to rescue and in no way contributed to the fatal event," said Catania prosecutors in a statement.

 Official estimates as to the death toll vary with Italian prosecutors saying it will be almost impossible to produce a figure, as many migrants could have been trapped as the ship sank. According to the captain of the Portuguese merchant vessel, as many as 850 migrants could have perished.

 Sunday’s tragic events, which have been described as the worst disaster in the Straight of Sicily since World War II, have highlighted the increasingly desperate situation in the Mediterranean. The EU, under growing pressure from individual nations such as Italy, are discussing a potential “military operation” to target individual people traffickers, according to Natasha Bertaud, spokesperson for the EU commission.

 Foreign Ministers from around the European Union have drawn up a 10-point plan to combat the growing issue of migrant deaths, which will be discussed at an emergency meeting of leaders on Thursday. However, in the words of EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini, “there is no magic solution.”