Three young sisters were killed when an overloaded rubber dinghy sank in stormy weather in the Mediterranean while attempting to reach Italy, a German charity said.
The girls, aged 9, 11 and 17, from conflict-torn Sudan have joined the toll of victims of the Mediterranean migration route, which has claimed more than 30,000 lives since the International Organization for Migration began monitoring it in 2014.
Their remains were discovered by volunteers from the German RESQSHIP group, who evacuated about 65 people from a disabled vessel in international waters north of Libya on the night from Friday to Saturday.
The fourth person is still missing.
The girls' mother and brother were among the survivors who were taken to the Italian island of Lampedusa on Saturday evening, rescuers said.
The green boat departed from the western Libyan town of Zuwara early on Friday morning.
“The craft was critically overloaded and partially lost air,” rescuer Barbara Satore told the Associated Press.
“In pitch darkness, with waves up to 1.5 metres high, the boat gradually filled with water over the course of several hours.”
As Ms. Satore explained, rescuers began coordinating the operation after receiving a signal from the Alarm Phone network, which receives emergency calls from migrant boats.
The sisters' bodies were found under a layer of water and fuel in the lower part of the boat after two-thirds of the passengers had been evacuated.
“I heard a woman screaming and a man shouting as he pointed towards the water,” the lifeguard recalls.
She stressed that the bad weather at night significantly complicated the operation.
“Medics tried to perform resuscitation, but the bodies were under water for too long.”
According to Ms. Satore, the girls' mother, in a state of shock, remained next to their bodies on the rescue ship.
The relatives asked the team for white blankets to wrap the remains.
Among those rescued, according to rescuers, were pregnant women and minors.
Four of the victims required emergency medical care and were transferred along with their relatives to an Italian coast guard ship.
The survivors, in addition to the Sudanese, came from Mali, Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia and Eritrea.
In parallel, another rescue team reported rescuing 50+ people from a migrant boat, but was unable to help the second vessel due to the intervention of Libyan border guards.
“The Libyan Coast Guard and its affiliates have been accused by UN experts of systemic human rights violations and crimes against humanity in the country,” SOS Humanity said in a statement.
“Forced deportation of asylum seekers to areas where they face torture is contrary to international law.”
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
