ROME: German charity group Sea-Watch said on Tuesday it had rescued 28 migrants and recovered two bodies, including that of a child, following a shipwreck off the coast of Tunisia.

The group`s ship Aurora found five survivors and the dead bodies in a deflated rubber dinghy in the early hours of Tuesday, the charity said. It rescued another 23 survivors, including a toddler, from an offshore oil and gas platform where they had taken refuge after the shipwreck.

Those rescued reported that at least six people, including three children,were missing, Sea-Watch said on social media, adding the Aurora was now heading to the Italian island of Lampedusa.

`Governments celebrate falling arrival numbers as a success. We see what that success means: at least two dead and six missing, including three children, said Sea-Watch spokesperson Julia Winkler, calling for a state-run European search-and-rescue programme. Over 22,000 sea migrants have arrived in Italy so far in 2026, interior ministry data showed, compared to more than 50,000 reported in the same period of 2025.-Reuters