Dozens of migrants feared dead after 11-year-old girl found alive in sea off Italy, rescue group says

More than 40 migrants are feared dead in Italy’s Lampedusa after an 11-year-old lone survivor said the boat he was on capsized, a rescue group said on Wednesday.

“Let’s assume that she is the sole survivor of the wreck and that the other 44 people drowned.” said Compass Collectivewhich helps in migrant rescue missions in the Mediterranean.

The group’s Trotamar III vessel “heard the girl’s calls in the dark” on Wednesday morning at approximately 2:20 a.m. (0120 GMT) while en route to another emergency.

“The 11-year-old girl, originally from Sierra Leone, had been floating in the water for three days wearing two makeshift life jackets made from air-filled tire tubes and a simple life vest,” the group said in a statement. Compass Collective was also launched images of the tire tubes and the rescuers treating the girl.

Mauro Marino, a doctor who examined her, told the Repubblica newspaper that he believed the girl was in the sea for about 12 hours.

The girl told rescuers that the metal boat left Sfax, Tunisia. She said the boat sank within seconds when strong storms hit with 11-foot waves, and that she and two other people were together in the water for a while but then lost contact, the the BBC reported.

“The girl had no drinking water or food with her and was hypothermic, but responsive and oriented,” Compass Collective said.

A spokeswoman for Mediterranean Hope, another charity, told AFP the girl was recovering in hospital after her rescue.

The group’s representatives found the girl to be “very tired,” spokeswoman Marta Bernardini said.

Italian news agency ANSA reported that coast guard and police vessels were searching the area where the shipwreck was found on Wednesday.

“They have not yet found bodies or traces of clothing,” ANSA wrote.

According to the International Organization for Migrationmore than 30,000 migrants have died or remain missing while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea since figures began to be recorded 10 years ago. The reports the BBC that Italy has borne the brunt, receiving more than 63,000 this year alone, according to data published by the United Nations.

last year, at least 64 peopleincluding eight children, died when their cramped wooden boat crashed into shoals just a few hundred meters off Italy’s Calabrian coast and broke up early in rough seas.