ROME, Sept 29 (Reuters) – German charity group Sea-Watch said on Tuesday it had rescued 28 migrants and recovered two bodies, including that of a child, following a shipwreck off the coast of Tunisia.
The group’s ship Aurora found five survivors and the dead bodies in a deflated rubber dinghy in the early hours of Tuesday, the charity said.
It rescued another 23 survivors, including a toddler, from an offshore oil and gas platform where they had taken refuge after the shipwreck.
Those rescued reported that at least six people, including three children, were missing, Sea-Watch said on social media, adding the Aurora was now heading to the Italian island of Lampedusa.
“Governments celebrate falling arrival numbers as a success. We see what that ‘success’ means: at least two dead and six missing, including three children,” said Sea-Watch spokesperson Julia Winkler, calling for a state-run European search-and-rescue programme.
Over 22,000 sea migrants have arrived in Italy so far in 2026, interior ministry data showed, compared to more than 50,000 reported in the same period of 2025.
In the same period, more than 1,970 people have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean in a bid to reach Europe, Sea-Watch said.
(Reporting by Anna Uras, Editing by Gavin Jones and Timothy Heritage)
