40 PEOPLE RESCUED BY EMERGENCY’S SHIP LIFE SUPPORT DISEMBARK IN ORTONA AFTER FOUR DAYS AT SEA

RESCUED MAN FROM DARFUR ON BOARD, “I WANTED TO GO BACK TO SUDAN, TO SEE MY FAMILY, BUT THE SITUATION THERE HAD ONLY GOTTEN WORSE. SO I TRIED TO CROSS THE MEDITERRANEAN.” 

Ortona, 23 August 2023. After four days at sea, EMERGENCY’s search and rescue ship Life Support has completed the disembarkation of the 40 people rescued in international waters on the evening of 19 August. Among the rescued were two unaccompanied children. 

“Today we have completed disembarkation operations in the port of Ortona,” said Domenico Pugliese, captain of Life Support. “All procedures have been carried out according to the authorities’ requests. Finally the 40 rescued people can go ashore, after four days’ travelling through unfavourable weather conditions that created unnecessary discomfort for them on board.” 

The 40 rescued are men and boys from Bangladesh, Egypt, Pakistan, Syria and Sudan; all countries affected by economic and political instability, and conflict. Two are unaccompanied children. They had set off around 3am on 19 August from Khoms, Libya, in a fibreglass boat. After about 12 hours, the boat was reported to EMERGENCY by Seabird, the civilian monitoring aircraft operated by the NGO Sea-Watch. The Life Support crew informed the relevant authorities and carried out rescue operations. 

After completing the rescue, Life Support requested a Place of Safety (POS) to disembark the 40 rescued people and offered to intervene in other distress cases; the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Rome assigned the POS in Ortona, a four-day navigation to the port on the Adriatic sea. 

“Moving NGO ships away from the Central Mediterranean, where there are many boats in trouble these days and where thousands of people die every year, is inhumane,” says Carlo Maisano, Life Support’s Head of Mission. “Coordinating authorities must consider NGO ships as key assets to cover a stretch of sea that would otherwise remain unprotected. After a rescue, it is crucial that the people on board are taken to a nearby place of safety as quickly as possible. It is also crucial that NGO ships can return to operational areas as quickly as possible”

“I left Sudan four years ago because there was so much conflict in Darfur, where I lived. Some of my friends and family were killed and I had no way to support myself by working,” explains a 26-year-old from Sudan. “I went to Libya because I was told I would find work there easily. I worked in construction for a while, but I suffered. The work was very hard, and in Libya there was strong racial discrimination that affected all aspects of my life: I always bought food from the same man, because he was one of the few people who would sell to me. I could not leave my neighbourhood for fear of being kidnapped by armed groups patrolling other parts of the city. I could no longer live like this, so I decided to leave. I wanted to go back to Sudan, to see my family, but the situation there had only gotten worse. So I tried to cross the Mediterranean. The first time, the dinghy started to deflate and take on water and I was taken back by the Libyans less than an hour after we left. They imprisoned me for almost a year and only released me because my relative, who made the trip years ago, was able to send me money from Europe. I managed to cross the Mediterranean this second time and made it.”
  

Life Support is EMERGENCY’s search and rescue vessel in the Central Mediterranean sea. Operational since December 2022, Life Support has rescued 983 people in eleven different missions.