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

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

“We assume that she is the only survivor of the shipwreck and that the other 44 people drowned,” said Compass Collective, which assists in migrant rescue missions in the Mediterranean.

The group’s Trotamar III vessel “heard the calls in the darkness” of the girl Wednesday morning at approximately 2:20 am (0120 GMT) while heading to another emergency.

“The 11-year-old girl, originally from Sierra Leone, had been floating in the water for three days with two improvised life jackets made from tire tubes filled with air and a simple life jacket,” the group said in a statement. Compass Collective also released images of the tire tubes and rescuers treating the girl.

Mauro Marino, a doctor who examined her, told the Repubblica daily that he believed the girl was in the sea for some 12 hours.

The girl told rescuers that the metal boat left from Sfax, Tunisia. She said that the boat sunk within seconds as strong storms with 11-foot waves hit and that she – and two others – were together in the water for a while but then lost contact, the BBC reported.

“The girl had no drinking water or food with her and was hypothermic, but reactive and oriented,” Compass Collective said.

A spokeswoman for Mediterranean Hope, another charity, told AFP the girl was recuperating in hospital after her rescue.

Group representatives found the girl to be “very tired,” said spokeswoman Marta Bernardini.

Italian news agency ANSA reported that the coast guard and police boats were searching the area on Wednesday where the shipwrecked boat was found.

“They have not yet found bodies nor traces of clothing,” ANSA wrote.

According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 30,00 migrants have died or remain missing while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea since it started recording figures 10 years ago. The BBC reports that Italy has borne the brunt, receiving more than 63,000 this year alone, according to data released by the United Nation. 

Last year, at least 64 people, including eight children, died when their overcrowded wooden boat slammed into the shoals just a few hundred meters off Italy’s Calabrian coast and broke apart early in rough seas.