Press release from August 24, 2025:

Three sisters drown in rubber boat – NADIR rescues 65 people in distress at sea

In the night from Friday to Saturday, the sailing vessel NADIR operated by the organization RESQSHIP rescued 65 people from an overcrowded and flooded rubber boat in the Central Mediterranean. During the evacuation, survivors discovered the bodies of three sisters aged 9, 11 and 17 who had drowned in the water inside the boat. Another person is reported missing.

On Friday evening, Alarm Phone alerted to the distress case. Around 1 a.m., the NADIR found 65 people on a rubber boat that had departed from Zuwara, Libya, the day before. Just a few hours after departure, the boat had started taking on increasing amounts of water, and the people had tried in vain to bail it out. Many were already sitting knee-deep in water as waves of up to 1.5 meters repeatedly washed over the boat. Among them were numerous women, three of them pregnant, children, and a seven-month-old baby.

  “While we were evacuating the people one by one from the rubber boat onto the NADIR, I suddenly heard screams and someone pointed to the water inside the boat. It became clear that there were bodies underneath the surface,” reports Barbara Sartore, Communications Coordinator on board of the NADIR. “The boat was dangerously overcrowded, it was pitch-dark, water was flooding in, people were panicking. In that chaos, it was impossible to see that the three sisters, sitting deep inside the boat, had already drowned. When the survivors realized, it was sheer horror.”

The medical team attempted to resuscitate the girls, but in vain. Three other family members, including the mother and a brother, survived.  According to the survivors, another person had already gone overboard hours earlier and remains missing. Many of the rescued suffered severe chemical burns caused by the mixture of seawater and petrol inside the boat. They were treated by the medical team on board the NADIR.  The crew of the NADIR cared for the survivors throughout the night.

The following morning, their relatives were given time and privacy to grieve and say goodbye to their loved ones. On Saturday afternoon, the Italian Coast Guard evacuated 14 people – medical cases and their relatives – and brought them to Lampedusa. Later that evening, the NADIR also reached the island with the remaining survivors and the deceased. 

“What happened to the three sisters is unimaginable, as is the danger that people on the move face in search of safety. Our thoughts are with their relatives, who are bearing this preventable loss and pain. Safe escape routes are urgently needed to finally put an end to the dying in the Mediterranean,” Katja Schnitzer, Crewmember on board of the NADIR.