One-year-old twin girls missing after migrant crossing to Italy: NGO

Dozens of people rescued in Lampedusa after vessel crossed from Tunisia in dangerous conditions, Save the Children says.

One-year-old twin girls are missing at sea after a boat carrying dozens of migrants and refugees reached the Italian island of Lampedusa this week, nonprofit group Save the Children has said.

The organisation said on Friday that 61 people, including the missing twins’ mother and 22 unaccompanied minors, were rescued from the vessel a day earlier after crossing to Lampedusa in “extremely difficult conditions” made worse by Cyclone Harry.

“They described having departed from Tunisia, braving stormy seas for at least three days, and arriving in a state of great physical and psychological distress,” Save the Children said in a statement.

A man died after disembarking the boat, the group added.

The Central Mediterranean is the deadliest known migration route in the world, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Forty-nine people, including 12 children under age five, died last October when their boat capsized after leaving the Tunisian coastal village of Salakta.

Tunisia has seen an increase in departures in recent years, according to the IOM’s Missing Migrants Project, which tracks crossings.

And in 2020, Tunisian nationals made up more than 60 percent of the Central Mediterranean crossings, the IOM said, as the country faced high unemployment rates as well as deepening socioeconomic and political hardships.

On Friday, Save the Children said people continued to risk their lives “on dangerous and often deadly journeys” due to an absence of safe migration routes.

Giorgia D’Errico, the group’s director of institutional relations, said the European Union has responsibility for every decision that puts those fleeing poverty, violence and persecution at risk.

“We cannot silently watch the loss of human lives, including so many children, that has continued for years, making the sea, once again, a deadly border: this unacceptable massacre must end,” she said.