“By the time [we] reached the rubber boat at around 4.30 p.m., it was too late to help some of the people,” the German sea rescue charity RESQSHIP said in a statement. Two children, aged 3 and 4, and one adult died on a dinghy crossing from Libya to Italy.
The crew found the boat adrift south of Lampedusa on Saturday. Its engine had failed shortly after it left western Libya on Wednesday, and those aboard had spent days exposed to wind and tide. RESQSHIP took off 59 survivors.
One of its paramedics described the handover of the two youngest victims. “Two bodies of infants aged 3 and 4 were handed over to us,” the charity quoted him as saying. “They had died the day before, probably of thirst.”
A man was unconscious when rescuers arrived. Attempts to resuscitate him failed, and he was declared dead. RESQSHIP said many of the rescued migrants had critical injuries, including chemical burns from salt water and fuel. It reported on Sunday that the bodies of the dead had been brought ashore on Lampedusa.
A deadlier route
Lampedusa lies between Tunisia, Malta and the larger Italian island of Sicily, and it is the first port of call for many migrants trying to reach Europe. The crossing has grown deadlier over the past decade. Almost 25,000 migrants have died or gone missing trying to get from North Africa to Europe since 2014, according to the International Organization for Migration. That includes around 1,700 last year and 378 so far this year.
The European Union signed agreements worth hundreds of millions of euros with Libya in 2017 and with Tunisia in 2023, meant to cut migration and the many deaths at sea. Under the deals, the coastguards of both countries took over border protection. Reports of serious human rights violations have led to heavy criticism of both arrangements.
