12-year-old girl sole survivor of shipwreck off Lampedusa island. Saccomandi (Mediterranean Hope): “She is in good health, bundled up in a thermal blanket”

We will refer to her as Jasmine (a fictitious name). She is a 12-year-old girl from Sierra Leone, the sole survivor of a shipwreck off the coast of Lampedusa island. The migrant vessel departed from Sfax, Tunisia, and was subsequently caught in a storm. It is thought to have capsized with 44 passengers on board. Jasmine had been floating in the water for a long time clutching two improvised life jackets made from tyre tubes filled with air. She was wearing a basic lifejacket. She was rescued by the sailing vessel Trotamar III, operated by the German non-governmental organisation (NGO) Compass Collective, which has been actively operating since August 2023 in missions south of Lampedusa. As soon as she arrived at the commercial pier, at 5am, she was immediately taken to the clinic to undergo health checks. She was taken to the clinic for a health check as soon as she arrived at the commercial pier at 5am. “I went to see her with a volunteer to make sure she had some dry clothes and something to eat. It was a very brief exchange. The girl was in the emergency room, she had changed her clothes, she was wrapped in a thermal blanket and she looked quite calm.” Speaking to SIR from Lampedusa, where she is based, is Francesca Saccomandi, a collaborator of Mediterranean Hope, a migration project of the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy, which has been assisting with response operations at the Lampedusa pier for the past 10 years, welcoming refugees during disembarkations in conjunction with the Lampedusa Solidale Forum, an informal network of citizens and volunteers. In the same hours, more than 500 migrants landed on the island from different boats. They are now all in the Contrata Imbriacola migrant centre, waiting to be relocated.

“We spent the whole night at the dock helping with the disembarkations– said Saccomandi, who has been based in Lampedusa for the past year and a half – When we heard that the girl was in the clinic, we rushed to see her.”

We gave her a backpack with a colouring book.

But she didn’t tell us anything, nor if she was travelling with her parents. All we know is that she said she survived a few days at sea. But this has yet to be verified. Her health conditions suggest that she could have been at sea for a few hours.”

Interview with the psychologist. “Jasmine will now receive post-shipwreck care, but it is unclear whether she will remain in the hotspot for a few days or if she will be transferred immediately. I was told that a Red Cross psychologist was on her way to talk to her”, says the Mediterranean Hope worker. “We have to wait until she is able to explain what happened and whether the people who were on the same boat were stopped by the Libyan coastguard and taken back to Tunisia, or whether they are missing at sea, as no bodies have been found. There will certainly be ongoing searches and investigations.”

The Mediterranean Hope worker is keen to point out that

This shipwreck could have been prevented:

“Alarm Phone has been warning of boats in distress for days, requiring rapid intervention. This and many other shipwrecks could have been prevented, given the amount of attention and public money spent on utterly pointless activities such as the Libra ship, which transferred asylum seekers to detention centres in Albania.”

The last ship arrived at 11am, but the Mediterranean Hope team (five people in all) and volunteers from Lampedusa, including three nuns from an inter-congregational project, will return to the Favarolo pier. “Several ships are currently conducting search operations at sea,” she explains. “These sudden storms can be extremely dangerous,” she insists, “but even more dangerous is the policy of the European Union, which doesn’t take responsibility for these people who are only asking for a safe and legal passage to Europe and who will continue to leave.”

Saccomandi points out that the girl was found by an NGO,

“these are the same NGOs whose rescue capabilities at sea are in danger of being thwarted by recent legislation. This is a matter of concern to us.”

The post 12-year-old girl sole survivor of shipwreck off Lampedusa island. Saccomandi (Mediterranean Hope): “She is in good health, bundled up in a thermal blanket” first appeared on AgenSIR.(Fonte: AgenSIR – News archiviata in #TeleradioNews ♥ il tuo sito web © Diritti riservati all’autore)