Girl, 11, rescued after shipwreck stranded her alone at sea for three days
The girl was found at sea holding on to tyre tubes
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.An 11-year-old girl was rescued overnight after three days at sea as the sole survivor of a shipwreck off Italy’s Lampedusa island, a rescue charity said on Wednesday.
Germany’s Compass Collective said crew on its vessel were en route to another emergency when they heard shouting from the water and picked up the girl around 3 am wearing a life jacket and hanging on to a pair of tyre tubes.
The girls from Sierra Leone told them she had set off from the Tunisian city of Sfax in a metal boat carrying 45 people that sank in a storm.
Charity crew took care of the girl and took her to Lampedusa which is closer to North Africa than the rest of Italy and is often a first landing point for migrants.
Lampedusa island map:
After medical assistance, the girl was moved to a migrant holding centre where Italian Red Cross staff and volunteers were looking after her, CompassCollective added in a statement.
“In this festive period, in which the majority of us is lucky to be with their loved ones, my thoughts go out to the girl from Sierra Leone,” said Nicola Dell’Arciprete, head of U.N. children’s agency UNICEF in Italy.
“Yet another tragedy that increases the number of dead and missing in the Central Mediterranean.”
The sea migration route between Tunisia, Libya, Italy and Malta is one of the most dangerous in the world, with more than 24,300 disappeared or dying since 2014, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Italy says its hardline approach on immigration is contributing to a fall in sea arrivals. In the year to date, it has recorded around 64,000 migrant landings, compared to more than 153,000 in the same period of 2023.
In September this year Sir Keir Starmer claimed that Britain can learn lessons from Italy on how to reduce migration, after far-right prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s administration saw small boat arrivals fall by more than 60 per cent this year.
Sir Keir hailed Italy’s “dramatic” drop in unregulated migration and expressed interest in Ms Meloni’s proposed asylum processing scheme in Albania.
Claiming that his talks with Ms Meloni had marked a return to “British pragmatism”, Sir Keir also praised Italy’s “upstream work” in north Africa, saying: “I have always made the argument that preventing people leaving their country in the first place is far better than trying to deal with those that have arrived.”
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments