Newborn babies forced to sleep in cardboard boxes

This tear-jerking picture of tiny newborns sleeping in cardboard boxes in a Venezuelan hospital has gone viral.

The image - released by the country’s opposition party, Mesa de la Unidad Democratica - shows a line of little ones, fast asleep in their cardboard cribs.

The party blames the healthcare crisis in Venezuela for the lack of adequate beds for the babies.

The party posted the image on their website on Tuesday, alongside the caption: “So the world knows: the newborns in the Dr Domingo Guzmán Lander Hospital are being kept in cardboard boxes due to lack of incubators. 20 Sept.”

Venezuelan Social Security Institute President Carlos Rotondaro responded to the images on Twitter, defending the country’s healthcare system, saying: “Our hospitals take care of hundreds of patients, despite what some media are hiding. We recognise the failures and continue.”