barca sank off Lampedusa in the late afternoon yesterday, leaving a child from Sierra Leone missing as rescues unfolded in the water. Italian Coast Guard personnel on patrol vessels pulled dozens of people to safety and brought survivors ashore overnight on the island. The search remained active as of 11: 30 a. m. ET today, with sea and air assets still working the area where the vessel went down.
Rescue operation and ongoing search
Italy’s Coast Guard said military personnel aboard patrol boat Cp327 rescued 64 people, including 14 women and 10 minors, after the vessel sank offshore. Despite searches in the area where the 9-meter boat went down, no trace of the missing child had been found. The child is described as being 2 or 3 years old.
The Coast Guard’s search operations continued with patrol boat Cp271 and the Coast Guard aircraft Manta, which were deployed to scan the sea and surrounding waters. The child’s mother was among those brought ashore overnight on Lampedusa with the other survivors.
What witnesses told authorities at the Lampedusa hotspot
hearings with survivors were underway at the Lampedusa hotspot. Among those being heard, survivors from Côte d’Ivoire described paying 300 euros for the crossing and said they want to remain in Italy.
The migrants on the boat were described as coming from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, and Sierra Leone. Coast Guard personnel described the moment of interception as especially precarious: when Cp327 sighted the vessel, the boat had already been taking on water for some time and was partially submerged. Everyone fell into the sea during the incident; all were rescued except the missing child, who slipped from the mother’s arms when she entered the water.
In the middle of the operation, responders faced the immediate challenge of locating a small child in open water after the barca went under—an urgent task complicated by the chaos of multiple people entering the sea at once.
Immediate reactions from Save the Children
Save the Children said a 2-year-old has “paid the price of policies that prioritize border defense over saving human lives, ” commenting on the incident in which the child from Sierra Leone is missing after traveling with the mother. The organization said its team, working in collaboration with the Italian Red Cross and other organizations present on Lampedusa, is providing a response to the survivors’ immediate needs.
Save the Children also called for regular and safe channels to Europe and for a coordinated and structured search-and-rescue system in the Mediterranean to save people in danger, operating in compliance with international law. The organization warned that sanctioning or limiting the action of boats—whether non-governmental or merchant vessels—that rescue lives at sea is dangerous and puts thousands of lives at risk, referencing provisions contained in a recently approved immigration bill adopted by the Italian Council of Ministers, and noting that any measures would still need parliamentary confirmation.
Arrivals in the last hours and other rescues
Italian authorities counted 292 migrants who landed in the last hours on Lampedusa, including the 64 survivors from the sinking. In total, seven vessels were assisted by patrol boats from the Guardia di Finanza and the Italian Coast Guard.
The Coast Guard also provided support to the NGO vessel Safira 2, which rescued 40 people, including four women and one minor, who were found on a drifting inflatable boat. Those rescued were described as originating from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Somalia, and Sudan.
What’s next
The immediate focus remains the search area offshore, with Coast Guard units and the Manta aircraft continuing operations as of 11: 30 a. m. ET today. Authorities are expected to keep taking statements from survivors at the hotspot as rescue activity and arrivals continue. For now, the key unanswered question is whether the missing child can be found, as the barca sinking keeps Lampedusa’s emergency response locked in motion.
