The child survived thanks to the inner tube and life jacket
An 11-year-old girl was found alone adrift in the Mediterranean Sea after surviving the shipwreck of a boat carrying more than 40 migrants.
Originally from Sierra Leone in West Africa, the boy managed to stay afloat thanks to a tire tube and a life jacket and even braved storms with waves up to four meters high, according to the German NGO Compass Collective.
A sailing boat from a humanitarian entity found the girl screaming in the sea at around 3.20am (local time) this Wednesday (11), while crossing the region to help other migrants, and brought her to the island Italian island of Lampedusa, port of entry for international refugees in Europe.
“It was a miracle to have heard the girl’s voice on the high seas, with our ship’s engine running,” said the sailboat’s captain, Matthias Wiedenlubbert, who estimates she spent at least two days in the water.
The boat on which the Sierra Leonean was traveling left Sfax, Tunisia, with around 45 people on board, but sank due to a storm, according to what the child told rescuers.
After landing on Lampedusa, an island closer to the Tunisian coast than to the Italian peninsula, she underwent tests in a clinic, but is fine, despite the trauma.
“I went to visit her in the clinic and she was calm, I expected to see her much more scared. Instead she was just very, very tired”, says Francesca Saccomandi, volunteer of the NGO Mediterranean Hope, a refugee assistance project financed by the Italian evangelical Churches.
“I left with her a small kit that we give to children who arrive on the island: a backpack with a coloring book and some pencils”, added the activist. The Sierra Leonean also told doctors that she was traveling with a brother, who had disappeared.
Italy has sent patrol boats and planes to investigate the area where the girl was found, which is on one of the world’s deadliest migration routes.
According to the Interior Ministry, 64 thousand forced migrants will land on Italian coasts in 2024, a decrease of 58% compared to the same period last year. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), at least 1,536 people have died or disappeared trying to complete the Central Mediterranean crossing this year, compared to 2,526 for the whole of 2023. .
Source: Terra
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