On Monday Royal Navy warship HMS Bulwark arrived in an Italian port, carrying 1,200 migrants rescued from the Mediterranean Sea. The ship docked at Catania, in Sicily, where the migrants will be handed over to the Italian authorities. Bulwark has been on a search and rescue mission in the area for the past month. Captain Nick Cooke-Priest said the people traffickers were committing acts ‘tantamount to murder’. BBC defence correspondent Jonathan Beale, who was on board Bulwark during the rescue, said a small, wooden vessel had been packed with about 400 people. There had also been two rubber dinghies, each carrying about 100 people. The fact that many didn't even have life jackets was another reminder that the gangs who trafficked them had little regard for their lives. Five of the men rescued are going to be questioned by Italian police about possible links to the smuggling gangs.