Off the coast of the Italian island Lampedusa, rescuers saved an 11-year-old girl from the sea. She was the sole survivor of a group of 45 migrants who attempted to reach Europe by boat from Tunisia.
The girl from Sierra Leone had been at sea for three days, according to the Italian news agency ANSA. A boat from a German aid organization was en route to another emergency when rescuers heard the girl’s cries for help at 3:00 a.m.
on Wednesday. She was wearing a life jacket and holding onto some floats.
The migrants had departed from the Tunisian port city of Sfax when they encountered a storm. That same evening, nearly 360 migrants reached the shores of Lampedusa, coming from Bangladesh, Syria, Sudan, Morocco, and Iran, all having departed from Libya.
The crossing from North Africa to Southern Europe has claimed almost 25,000 lives since 2014. In recent weeks, three other migrant boats have disappeared between Italy and Libya.
Source: NOS