An 11-year-old girl survived three days at sea after a migrant boat sank in a storm, a rescue charity has said.
Wearing a life jacket and holding on to an “improvised lifebuoy” of tyre inner tubes, the girl from Sierra Leone was rescued off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
She was said to be the sole survivor of the 45 people who had initially been on board.
She told rescuers that she had set off from the Tunisian city of Sfax in a metal boat before it sank, according to Germany’s CompassCollective – a rescue charity running the vessel that found her.
After days without food or water, the child was suffering from hypothermia when rescued, but was responsive, the charity said
The group added she had survived storms in her days at sea and had previously been floating with two other people.
Matthias Wiedenlubbert, captain of the TROTAMAR III rescue boat that found her, said: “It was an incredible co-incidence that we heard the child’s voice even though the engine was running.
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“And of course we looked for other survivors. But after the day-long storm with over 23 knots and 2.5m high waves, it was hopeless.”
After medical assistance, the girl was moved to a migrant holding centre where the Italian Red Cross was due to look after her.
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Nicola Dell’Arciprete, head of UNICEF in Italy, said: “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.
“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 people having disappeared or died along it since 2014, according to the International Organization for Migration.
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Italy has said that its hardline approach to immigration is contributing to a fall in sea arrivals.
