Tragedy in the Mediterranean: Two Children and One Adult Perish in Crossing from Libya to Italy

12 May Mediterranean: Three individuals, among them two small children, lost their lives in a dangerous bid to sail across the Mediterranean Sea from Libya to Italy, the German sea rescue service RESQSHIP said. The victims, 3- 4-year-old children and an adult man, were found by rescuers after their rubber boat was spotted drifting south of the Italian island of Lampedusa.

The vessel, with a total of 62 migrants, had set off from the western coastline of Libya on Wednesday but broke down after a few hours, leaving its occupants drifting in open water for days. By Saturday afternoon at approximately 4:30 local time, when RESQSHIP’s rescue boat, the Humanity 1, arrived at the dinghy, it was too late to rescue all the travelers.

“Two infants’ bodies aged 3 and 4 were delivered to us. They had passed away the previous day, likely due to dehydration,” one of the charity’s paramedics explained. A third passenger, an unconscious man, was also pulled from the boat, but could not be revived despite attempts at emergency resuscitation. The other 59 survivors, most of whom were severely dehydrated, suffered chemical burns caused by a combination of fuel and seawater, trauma, and were rescued and subsequently taken to safety.

The North African migratory route to Europe, especially through Libya and Tunisia, has been one of the most fatal routes for asylum seekers and migrants for many years. Lampedusa, which lies between Tunisia, Malta, and Sicily, has become a vital point of entry for migrants taking huge risks to get into Europe. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that almost 25,000 migrants have died or disappeared on this route since 2014, with 1,700 having died in 2023 alone and 378 so far this year.

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