This heart-warming picture shows an Italian coast guard tenderly cradling a baby born to a refugee aboard a rescue boat.
The infant was born in the middle of the Mediterranean sea, just moments after its mother had been rescued from a sinking dinghy.
Around 100 other refugees were packed into the vessel when it began to deflate as it attempted to cross the sea, and the Italian coast guard were scrambled to rescue them.
As the coast guard boat made its way to the island of Lampedusa, the woman, who is believed to be Nigerian, went into labour, and a member of the Italian coast guard was caught on camera carrying the newborn off the boat, swathed in a blue sheet.
The new mother, who was filmed by the coast guard being helped off the boat, is one of 300,000 refugees and migrants who have crossed the Mediterranean into Europe this year, a stark rise from 219,000 during the whole of 2014.
Both mother and baby are reportedly in hospital and doing well.
So far this year, 2,760 people have died attempting to make the treacherous crossing from the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
Earlier today, as record numbers of Syrian refugees continue to flee to Macedonia and Greece, the United Nations called for Europe to guarantee relocation for those in need.
