An 11-year-old girl was miraculously rescued after being stranded at sea for three days following a shipwreck near Italy’s Lampedusa island. The incident, believed to have killed the other passengers aboard the vessel, highlights the perilous conditions faced by migrants crossing the Mediterranean.
The girl was rescued early on Wednesday morning by Germany’s CompassCollective, a charitable organization. The group was initially en route to a different rescue operation when they unexpectedly heard the girl’s cries from the water. “It was an incredible coincidence that we heard the child’s voice despite the engine running,” said Skipper Matthias Wiedenlübbert in a statement.
The shipwrecked boat, which had set off from Sfax, Tunisia, was caught in a violent storm lasting several days in the central Mediterranean. There were approximately 45 passengers on board when the boat sank, according to the organization.
For three days, the young girl floated in the open sea with two makeshift life rings made from air-filled inner tubes and a simple life jacket. Despite having no access to food or drinking water and suffering from hypothermia, she remained conscious and aware. The girl recounted that two other passengers had been in the water with her for two days after the wreck, but she lost contact with them.
After being rescued, the girl received medical treatment and was transferred to a migrant holding center in Lampedusa, where Italian Red Cross personnel provided care.
Katja Tempel of CompassCollective highlighted the ongoing migrant crisis, emphasizing the danger migrants face on their journeys across the Mediterranean. “Even in storms, people are forced to take dangerous escape routes across the Mediterranean. We need safe passages for refugees and an open Europe that welcomes people and offers easy access to the asylum system. Drowning in the Mediterranean must not be an option,” Tempel said.
The migration route between Tunisia, Libya, Italy, and Malta remains one of the deadliest in the world. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), over 24,300 people have died or gone missing since 2014 while attempting the dangerous journey. IOM Director General António Vitorino expressed his concern over the growing number of fatalities: “The persisting humanitarian crisis in the central Mediterranean is intolerable. With more than 20,000 deaths recorded on this route since 2014, I fear that these deaths have been normalized.”
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