Sitting on a crowded rubber dinghy in the Mediterranean, a Nigerian girl of 11 wails for her dead mother.
Her brave little brother does his best to comfort her, putting his own grief to one side.
The Nigerian siblings were rescued from an overcrowded migrant boat carrying 150 sub-Saharan refugees and migrants about 23 kilometers (14 miles) north of Sabratha, Libya, while trying to cross the Mediterranean to Italy.
Both children were pictured visibly distressed as they were transferred from the dinghy to a Spanish NGO’s boat.
A leading migration group says more than 3,000 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean this year, nearly a 60-percent increase from this time in 2015.
The International Organization for Migration said on Friday that the discovery of 39 bodies on Libyan shores this week raises the total, as of Wednesday, to 3,034 migrants and refugees who have died trying the crossing in 2016.
The figure marks the third straight year in which more than 3,000 people have died in such attempts.
IOM says more than a quarter-million migrants and refugees entered Europe, mostly to Greece and Italy, by sea this year. It noted in particular a rising trend of Nigerian women arriving in Italy, pointing to a ‘sharp increase’ since the start of 2015.
The latest rescue comes after Italy on Thursday launched a hard-hitting campaign on the internet, TV, radio and social media to warn African migrants of the many dangers they face in trying to reach Europe.
Dubbed ‘Aware Migrants,’ the 1.5-million-euro ($1.66-million) campaign is targeting 15 countries in West and North Africa which have been big sources of the migratory wave.
It features migrants recounting their suffering at the hands of ruthless smugglers or enduring the perilous Mediterranean crossing.
(Sourced from agencies, Feature image courtesy:unhcr.org)
