11yo girl survives three days in Mediterranean sea by holding onto tubes

An 11-year-old girl has survived three days in the stormy Mediterranean Sea by clinging on to two tyre tubes after the shipwreck.

According to reports, the girl was discovered by a non-governmental organisation, Compass Collective, as they were on their way to another emergency. It was then that the rescue team heard the minor's cries for help.

According to the organisation, the girl is most likely the only survivor among 45 people on board a vessel that sank off the coast of Italy.

“It was an incredible coincidence that we heard the child’s voice despite the engine running,” said Matthias Wiedenlübbert, the rescue organisation’s chief.

The team heard the child’s call for help at 3:20 am local time and immediately launched a rescue mission in the dark. They also alerted the rescue control centre in Rome.

While the little girl is originally from Sierra Leone, the boat had originally departed from Sfax, a port city on Tunisia's coast. Her boat had hit the dayslong storm that prevented many rescue boats from setting sail and that was why she remained stranded.

The girl told the rescue team that she had been in contact with two other people from the boat for a while but had not heard from them in two days.

An official statement by Campus Collective said that even though the girl was suffering from hypothermia, she was actually saved by the two tubes and a life vest.

“The girl had no drinking water or food with her, and although she was suffering from hypothermia, she was responsive and alert,” the statement read.

Notably, the central Mediterranean route between Tunisia, Libya, Italy and Malta is one of the most dangerous migration routes in the world, with over 24,300 deaths or disappearances since 2014.

Missing Migrants Project of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), on the other hand, reported over 30,000 deaths during the same period.

The IOM says it is likely that several other deaths remain unrecorded.

Compass Collective alone has saved 1,653 people in distress at sea since it began its operation in August 2023.