German NGO Sea-Watch rescued 28 people from a shipwreck in the Mediterranean in the early hours of September 29, but the operation also recovered two bodies — including that of a child — and left at least six people missing. The group is believed to have departed from the Tunisian coast.

The migrant distress hotline Alarm Phone alerted Sea-Watch that a boat had suffered a shipwreck, prompting the crew of the NGO's Aurora vessel to sail to the site.

During the rescue, the crew found five people stuck on a nearly deflated rubber dinghy. Another 23 survivors had already reached safety on the nearby Hasdrubal gas platform.

Sea-Watch said at least six more people remain missing, based on survivor accounts. Three of them are children belonging to one family, the organization stated in a press release.

What did the crew find on the gas platform?

After rescuing the five survivors and recovering the two bodies from the dinghy, the Aurora received permission from the Tunisian maritime rescue coordination center to travel to the gas platform and take the remaining migrants on board.

The crew encountered a toddler among the stranded migrants as it handed out life jackets and completed the transfer. The crew is now recording initial information about the survivors, such as their names, ages and countries of origin.

Sea-Watch spokesperson Giulia Messmer confirmed: "Our crew recovered the body of a child."

"Parents lost their child when all they wanted was to bring them to safety. Today, we are witnessing the cruelty of European politics first-hand," she said.

"We call for a European search and rescue program to be established immediately and to end the deliberate dying at sea."

Sea-Watch noted that close to 2,000 people have died or gone missing in 2026 alone while attempting irregular migration to Europe. The NGO said this serves as proof that "[r]escue is not a favor Europe grants, it is a duty Europe fails."

Where did the survivors disembark?

Italian authorities assigned Lampedusa, the closest port, as a safe harbor for the Aurora after Sea-Watch pleaded the severity of the situation. The NGO confirmed on social media that disembarkation had taken place safely.

Some of the rescued migrants needed help disembarking after their ordeal at sea.

Italy's policy of assigning random and often remote ports to NGO rescue ships frequently forces survivors to stay on board for days after crossing the Mediterranean. Italy justifies the policy by arguing that smugglers treat private rescue missions as "taxis" doing their bidding and factor sea rescue into their business model.

Assigning remote ports effectively keeps rescue groups out of the Mediterranean areas where shipwrecks occur, because vessels must travel hundreds of kilometers to their assigned destination. The same law obliges private rescue ships to proceed to the assigned port immediately and bars them from picking up further migrants in distress.

Organizations that reject this rule, citing maritime law's requirement that saving lives takes priority, have repeatedly had their vessels impounded by Italy for weeks after disembarkation. Sea-Watch 5 was recently detained for 45 days and fined 7,500 euros.

How deadly is the Mediterranean route this year?

More than 22,000 people have arrived in Italy so far this year, according to Italy's Interior Ministry, compared with more than 50,000 during the same period in 2025.

Set against the roughly 2,000 fatalities recorded to date this year, the figures point to an average of nearly one death or disappearance for every 11 people attempting the Mediterranean crossing.

Since 2014, at least 35,000 people are believed to have died on irregular Mediterranean journeys, according to the IOM's Missing Migrants project.