LETTER FROM ROME

On a cold December night, in the middle of a rough sea, a miracle happened. In an Italy led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose policies are focused on curbing illegal immigration by limiting the actions of non-governmental sea rescue organizations, the nation was touched by an extraordinary story that took place in the Mediterranean, a sea where countless lives disappear without a trace. On the morning of Wednesday, December 11, at around 3:20 am, an 11-year-old girl was found floating in the open sea after a shipwreck and a long drift at sea, kept alive by two air chambers on which she floated until her improbable rescue.

The rescue operation, a stroke of pure chance, was led by the German NGO Compass Collective, whose crew were aboard their small sea rescue sailing vessel, Trotamar III, en route to the last known position of another vessel in distress. Despite the noise of the engine, the boat's captain, Matthias Wiedenlübbert, told Italian newspaper La Repubblica that he had managed to hear the girl's cries for help in what he described as a "miracle."

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