Updated - Twenty-four migrants who were among 850 feared dead in the Mediterranean on Saturday night are being buried today in a ceremony which started with an inter-faith service.

The poignant 45-minute service service was held under a marquee on the helipad of Mater Dei Hospital at the same time as EU leaders gather in Brussels to discuss how to stop the carnage.

The 24 victims, all men and including four teenagers – were slowly carried out of the morgue and to the nearby helipad along a route lined with bouquets of flowers which had previously carpeted the morgue.  

On Tuesday, an officer of the Italian patrol craft Gregoretti, which picked up the victims, spoke of having seen a sea ‘carpeted with bodies’, of whom only two were found to be alive.

The lifeless unidentified bodies were placed on the helipad in plain coffins, a symbol of the magnitude of the migration problem as potent as  the Unknown Soldier, who signifies the victims of the world wars.

The service was led by the Bishop of Gozo, Mgr Mario Grech, and the Imam Mohammed El Sadi who read excerpts of the Bible and the Koran and delivered their messages.  

The Imam said all were brothers before God. All people were migrants and their life was a journey.

What had happened, he said, should raise awareness among everyone. Was enough being done to help the migrants at sea. Was enough being done to help these people in their countries? Was enough being done to facilitate their return home?

Bishop Grech said the migrant victims were escaping from a desperate situation, they were trying to find freedom and a better life.

"We can continue to read out the laws like lawyers do, but that is not enough. The way of the law, the way of justice should open itself to the way of love,"- Bishop Mario Grech

"We mourn them, because deep inside, irrespective of our creed, nationality, race, we known that they are our fellow human beings."

This, he said, was a complex situation. He prayed all those who faced the task of trying to sort it out. But the way of the law was not enough to tackle humanitarian emergencies. 

"We can continue to read out the laws like lawyers do, but that is not enough. The way of the law, the way of justice should open itself to the way of love," Mgr Grech said.

"Charity goes beyond justice," he stressed. To love was to give what belonged to oneself.

One could no longer have the globalisation of indifference, Mgr Grech said, quoting the Pope.

He quoted the Parable of the Samaritan and said people should help those who pleaded for their help, not keep on going.

Mercy that walked the extra mile helped those in need and also those who gave their love, he said.

Merciful love demanded a reaching out to the roots which was causing this exodus, he said. "Face the situation with the eyes of the good samaritan," he said.

The addresses were followed by silence, punctuated only by the gentle strumming on a harp.

The Imam then performed the Islamic funeral rite and prayed that all may prosper in their homeland and migrants may return to their own countries. Mgr Grech followed with the Catholic prayers.

The service ended with the dignitaries bowing their heads before a wreath of white flowers as they walked out as a harpist played tunes related to the sea.

Those present for the ceremony included the President, the Prime Minister, the leader of the Opposition, the EU Commissioner on Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos, Italian Home Affairs Minister Angelino Alfano, Greek Solidarity Minister Theano Fotio, members of the diplomatic corps, ministers and many MPs.

Also present were many mourning migrants most of them crying and wailing (The Archbishop is currently in Rome)

The bodies were later taken to Addolorata Cemetery for burial in the common graves.