Life Support | 171 Rescued People Disembark in Naples

On Tuesday 8 April, 171 people rescued by EMERGENCY’s search and rescue ship Life Support disembarked in the port of Naples. They were rescued from boats in distress in three separate operations conducted in the international waters of the Library SAR zone on Saturday 5 April: two overcrowded rubber dinghies with deflated tubes on which 93 and 44 people were travelling, and an overloaded wooden dinghy carrying another 78 people.

All 215 survivors, including 53 women and 92 minors, 83 of whom were unaccompanied, were brought to safety aboard Life Support. On Sunday 7 April, 44 of the most vulnerable people were transferred to a Coast Guard vessel near Syracuse, with 171 remaining on board Life Support, including 28 women and 68 unaccompanied minors.

“The disembarkation operations went smoothly, thanks to the cooperation of the authorities and the volunteers who assisted us,” commented Domenico Pugliese, captain of Life Support. “Now that all the rescued people are finally safe on land, we can only wish them the best.”

Life Support had initially been assigned the port of Ancona as Place of Safety, but due to a severe worsening of weather and sea conditions in the Ionian and southern Adriatic Seas, the ship requested a closer port of disembarkation. The request was accepted by the authorities, who on Sunday night assigned the EMERGENCY ship the port of Naples. The change spared the survivors, already exhausted by their long journeys, two extra days of navigation through rough seas, with waves reaching three metres.

Chiara Picciocchi, Cultural Mediator on board Life Support, said, “The rescued people came from many different countries, including many single women with children, especially from Cameroon and the Ivory Coast. They faced this long and dangerous journey to be reunited with their families one day in Europe. Now that the disembarkation has concluded, the Life Support staff are preparing for their next mission in the central Mediterranean.”

Their countries of origin include Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Eritrea, Ghana, Mali and Somalia: countries that are devastated by armed conflicts, political instability, poverty and the climate crisis.

An Eritrean girl rescued by Life Support shared her experience: “When I arrived in Libya, they arrested me for no reason and took me to prison, where I stayed for a year. They gave me very little food, I was always hungry, always weak. After about 12 months they released me, but I didn’t have the money to pay the traffickers, so they took me back to prison. My mother, when she heard what was happening, sold everything she had, even her jewellery, to pay for my freedom. With that money I managed to get out of prison and leave for Europe. Now I am finally safe, but after such a long time without food I can only eat tiny amounts. On board the ship, the medical team took care of me.”

“I was brought to Libya with the promise of a job, but it was a lie: in reality the people who had assured me employment with a regular contract were traffickers,” said another rescued person on board Life Support. “They sold me from one person to another, more than four times. For years I lived in conditions of semi-slavery: I worked non-stop, without rights, without ever being paid. The last man who kept me, a Libyan, exploited me for four years and never gave me a penny. When I found the courage to ask for what I was owed, his response was violence: he had me arrested and taken to prison. In prison I met another Libyan, very different, a good person. He listened to my story and decided to help me. He was the one who put me in touch with the traffickers who then put me on the boat. During those four years in Libya, I suffered a lot of violence: my fourth tormentor beat me and tortured me, and broke my leg. I left because I had no other choice. Only hope.”

With today’s landing, Life Support has completed its 30th mission in the central Mediterranean. Operational since December 2022, the ship has rescued a total of 2,701 people.