BarcelonaA German nonprofit organization said on Sunday that three young girls perished when an overcrowded rubber dinghy took on water in bad weather while attempting to go to Italy across the Mediterranean Sea.
The sisters, who were nine, eleven, and seventeen years old, came from war-torn Sudan and are the most recent victims of a Mediterranean migration route that has killed over 30,000 people since the International Organization for Migration began keeping track in 2014.
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After rescuing about 65 people from the unseaworthy boat in international waters north of Libya on Friday and Saturday, volunteers from the German organization RESQSHIP discovered their dead. At sea, a fourth individual was reported missing.
According to the organization, survivors were taken to shore on the Italian island of Lampedusa late Saturday, including their mother and brother.
Earlier Friday, the green rubber dinghy had left Zuwara in Western Libya.
One of the rescuers, Barbara Satore, told The Associated Press that the boat was extremely crowded and half deflated. The boat had been taking in water for hours on end on a very dark night with waves that were 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) high.
According to Satore, they discovered it following a notification from the Alarm Phone network, which answers calls from distressed migrant boats.
The dead were discovered floating in a pool of fuel and water at the bottom of the boat only after rescuers had evacuated around two-thirds of the passengers.
According to Satore, I heard a man pointing into the sea and a woman screaming. She stated that the rescue was extremely risky due to the weather and darkness. They had been submerged for a long time when the medical staff tried resuscitation.
According to Satore, the mother sat next to her daughters’ remains on the rescue ship, still in shock. After requesting white sheets from the crew, relatives wrapped the remains in them.
According to Satore, numerous toddlers and pregnant women were among the other individuals saved. Along with their relatives, four of them needed immediate medical evacuation and were taken to an Italian coast guard ship. In addition to Sudan, survivors also came from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Mali, and Ivory Coast, she said.
Another Mediterranean rescue organization reported that it had rescued over 50 people from one migrant boat but was unable to get to another that was in trouble after Libyan coast guards halted it.
The SOS Humanity NGO said in a statement that an independent United Nations Fact-Finding Mission has accused the so-called Libyan Coast Guard and related entities of committing grave crimes against humanity and human rights in Libya. International law is broken when those seeking asylum are sent back to a place where they are subjected to abuse and torture.
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