Dozens of migrants feared dead after 11-year-old girl found alive in sea off Italy, rescue group says

Greater than 40 migrants are feared useless off Italy’s Lampedusa after a lone 11-year-old survivor stated the boat she was on capsized, a rescue group stated Wednesday.

“We assume that she is the one survivor of the shipwreck and that the opposite 44 folks drowned,” said Compass Collective, which assists in migrant rescue missions within the Mediterranean.

The group’s Trotamar III vessel “heard the calls within the darkness” of the lady Wednesday morning at roughly 2:20 am (0120 GMT) whereas heading to a different emergency.

“The 11-year-old lady, initially from Sierra Leone, had been floating within the water for 3 days with two improvised life jackets constituted of tire tubes full of air and a easy life jacket,” the group stated in a press release. Compass Collective additionally launched images of the tire tubes and rescuers treating the lady.

Mauro Marino, a physician who examined her, advised the Repubblica every day that he believed the lady was within the sea for some 12 hours.

The lady advised rescuers that the metallic boat left from Sfax, Tunisia. She stated that the boat sunk inside seconds as robust storms with 11-foot waves hit and that she – and two others – have been collectively within the water for some time however then misplaced contact, the BBC reported.

“The lady had no consuming water or meals along with her and was hypothermic, however reactive and oriented,” Compass Collective stated.

A spokeswoman for Mediterranean Hope, one other charity, advised AFP the lady was recuperating in hospital after her rescue.

Group representatives discovered the lady to be “very drained,” stated spokeswoman Marta Bernardini.

Italian information company ANSA reported that the coast guard and police boats have been looking out the world on Wednesday the place the shipwrecked boat was discovered.

“They haven’t but discovered our bodies nor traces of clothes,” ANSA wrote.

Based on the International Organization for Migration, greater than 30,00 migrants have died or stay lacking whereas attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea because it began recording figures 10 years in the past. The BBC reports that Italy has borne the brunt, receiving greater than 63,000 this yr alone, in line with information launched by the United Nation. 

Final yr, no less than 64 folks, together with eight youngsters, died when their overcrowded wood boat slammed into the shoals just some hundred meters off Italy’s Calabrian coast and broke aside early in tough seas.