BARCELONA/ROME: More than 40 migrants were feared dead off Italy’s Lampedusa after a lone 11-year-old survivor said the boat she was on capsized, a rescue group said on 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 2:20am (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.

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

Eleven-year-old girl migrant from Sierra Leone survives three days at sea

The girl told rescuers that the metal boat left from Sfax, Tunisia, but sank in a storm.

“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, said 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.

Bodies found on boats

Six migrants have been found dead onboard several boats off the Canary Islands, the Spanish emergency services said on Wednesday.

The discovery was made when rescue services intercepted four boats near El Hierro, the smallest island in the archipelago off the northwest coast of Africa.

One of the boats managed to reach port, where four people were confirmed dead. A fifth person died of “cardio-respiratory arrest”, the emergency services wrote on X. A sixth person was found dead on one of three other boats off the coast, they added.

There was no immediate indication of how many people in total were onboard the vessels.

The number of undocumented migrants reaching Spain via the Canaries has increased sharply in recent months and reached a new annual record at the end of November.

According to the Spanish Interior Ministry, 41,425 migrants landed in the Canary Islands between January and November compared to 39,910 for the whole of last year.

The surge in arrivals has caused concern locally, where the authorities maintain they are unable to handle the influx of unaccompanied minors who have to be taken to reception centres.

Thousands of migrants have died in recent years trying to reach Europe from Africa via the Atlantic Ocean crossing, despite frequent capsizes. The route remains popular because it is monitored less than others in the Mediterranean.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2024