Survivors of a migrant shipwreck off the Calabrian coast on June 17 include a 10-year-old girl, Nalina, who is currently at Locri’s hospital and needs treatment and psychological assistance as she is asking for her parents, who are still missing after the incident.
Nalina cries because she feels pain in her arms and keeps asking for her parents and her little sister. She also thanks the doctors and nurses who are taking care of her, hugging them and kissing their hands.
She is only 10 and has just survived the shipwreck of a sailboat that was carrying her family and another 70 people. About 60 passengers, including 26 children, have been reported missing in the waters of the Ionian Sea, some 120 miles off the coast of Calabria, after the ship sank.
"The little girl keeps thanking us for what we have done so far for her, although with gestures given that she only speaks Iraqi," said the head of the paediatric ward at Locri’s hospital, Antonio Musolino, and the medical chief, Rosanna Lia. "However, what makes us feel sad and powerless is that she keeps asking for news of her family because her parents haven’t visited her."
The little girl survived by clinging to the half-submerged ship
Together with about 10 Iraqi and Iranian migrants, Nalina survived by clinging on to the semi-submerged boat until she was rescued by the crew members of a merchant ship and then entrusted to the care of coast guard officials who took her to the port of Roccella Ionica, in Calabria. The rescued group included a woman who didn’t make it and died before reaching the port.
Now Nalina is being treated at Locri’s hospital, where doctors and nurses are taking care of her. According to the doctors, her condition has significantly improved since she was first hospitalized.
Reported missing at sea
"It’s difficult for us to deal with such a situation. But it is clear that, once Nalina will feel better, someone will be tasked with starting to discuss the situation of her parents, certainly not us doctors," Rosanna Lia and Antonio Musolino explained.
The little girl, in fact, doesn’t know that her family members have been reported missing at sea and it is highly unlikely that she will be able to see them alive again.
Search operations have been ongoing, without interruption, since the shipwreck was first reported but rescuers have stressed that the chance of surviving in the open sea, especially without life vests or anything to cling to, are extremely low.
Also read: German rescue group: 10 migrants found dead in Mediterranean