Three young sisters drowned when the rubber boat carrying them and dozens of other migrants got into difficulties on the perilous central Mediterranean crossing from Libya to Italy, a German sea rescue charity RESQSHIP said on Sunday.

The Non-Governmental Organisation said the bodies of the sisters, aged 9, 11 and 17, were found inside the boat, which was "dangerously overcrowded" and had been buffeted by waves of up to 1.5 metres (4.9 feet) before a rescue vessel arrived at the scene.

Among the 65 people rescued by the charity's Nadir vessel were three pregnant women, children, and a seven-month-old baby. One person fell overboard earlier in the crossing and remains missing, RESQSHIP added in a statement.

It did not give details about the nationality of the three dead girls.

The Nadir intercepted the rubber boat, which had departed from Zuwara in Libya overnight on Friday, after being alerted by the hotline rescue operator Alarm Phone, the charity said.

Italy's coastguard evacuated 14 people - medical cases and their relatives - on Saturday afternoon and took them to the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, where the Nadir arrived later in the day with the remaining survivors and the bodies of the three girls.

As of January 2025, 126,000 migrants have passed through Lampedusa since 2023 according to the Italian Red Cross who manage the reception centre set up to deal with the huge influx of people arriving on the small island. 

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