A seven-year-old girl who was rescued from a boat in Malta’s search and rescue zone before being evacuated to Malta for medical care has died, according to the NGO that carried out the rescue.  

In a recent Instagram post, SOS Mediterranee said the young girl had fallen unconscious and entered cardiac arrest onboard the deck of one of the NGO’s rescue boats shortly after being brought aboard. 

The girl was resuscitated after 45 minutes and subsequently evacuated to Malta, where she later died, the NGO said.  

In a video accompanying the post last week, medical team leader Rebecca onboard the NGO’s Ocean Viking vessel said the crew were “devastated for her family”. 

She said the NGO was “outraged that situations like this keep happening due to a profound lack of state support,” adding “no one should have to endure this.” 

At the time of the video, there were 111 rescued people onboard the Ocean Viking following three rescue operations, she said.

Just days before the SOS Mediterranee video, a pregnant woman and a severely injured man were airlifted from the site of a shipwreck in a separate incident in Malta’s search and rescue (SAR) zone.

Seventeen people survived while several others, including two children, died, German rescue NGO Sea Punks said in a statement.

During that rescue, medical staff worked to resuscitate two children, performing CPR, but only one survived, the NGO said.

Despite concerns raised over the years that Malta is ignoring boats in distress in its search and rescue (SAR) zone, authorities have insisted that Malta fulfills its obligations while accusing NGO rescue efforts of being a "pull factor" for crossings.

A Times of Malta fact-check later assessed the claim as mostly false, however, citing research that overwhelmingly found the presence of NGO ships to have little to no effect on the rate of migrant crossings.