Photo credit: TRT Global
Three young sisters have died after an overcrowded rubber dinghy took on water in bad weather while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Italy.
Daily Mail reports that the sisters were from war-torn Sudan. They were 9, 11 and 17 years old. The Mediterranean route has claimed over 30,000 lives since the UN-linked International Organization for Migration (IOM) started counting in 2014.
Volunteers with the German group RESQSHIP found their bodies after rescuing some 65 people from the unseaworthy boat in international waters north of Libya between Friday and Saturday.
A fourth person was reported missing at sea.
Their mother and brother were among survivors who were brought to shore on the Italian Island of Lampedusa late on Saturday, according to the group.
The IOM said thousands of people attempt to cross the Mediterranean every year from Turkey and North Africa into Europe. But given the risks involved, thousands perish every year. So far, more than 32,000 people have died since the IOM began tracking migrant deaths.
Of these, IOM says 1,400 were children
