Two one-year-old twin girls are still missing at sea and an adult man died after 61 people disembarked on Thursday in Lampedusa.
LAMPEDUSA, Italy, 24 January 2026 – Two one-year-old twin girls are still missing at sea and an adult man died after 61 people disembarked on Thursday in Lampedusa, Save the Children said.
The 61 people, including the mother of the two missing girls and approximately 22 unaccompanied minors and two boys, were rescued and disembarked on Thursday in Lampedusa.
They faced a crossing in extremely difficult conditions, further exacerbated by the passage of Cyclone Harry, Save the Children said. The migrants said they departed from Tunisia and braved stormy seas for at least three days before arriving in a state of great physical and psychological distress.
Save the Children teams in collaboration with the Italian Red Cross and other organizations on the island, immediately responded to the survivors' needs, providing immediate access to assistance and organizing moments of decompression with the group of migrant minors.
In the absence of regular and safe routes, those seeking a possible future in Europe by crossing the Mediterranean continue to risk their lives on dangerous and often deadly journeys, with more than 33,300 people having died or gone missing at sea since 2024.
Giorgia D'Errico, Director of Institutional Relations at Save the Children, said:
"Every delay, every omission, every decision that puts at risk those fleeing poverty, violence, and persecution is a grave responsibility that falls on the EU and its Member States. We cannot stand by in silence as human lives, including so many children, have been lost for years, making the sea, once again, a deadly border: this unacceptable massacre must end.”
Save the Children strongly reiterates its call for the opening of regular and safe channels to Europe that guarantee respect for human rights and, at the same time, the activation of a coordinated and structured search and rescue system in the Mediterranean to save people in danger, acting in accordance with international principles and demonstrating the solidarity that is a founding value of the European Union.
ENDS
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