Life Support Disembarks 75 Rescued People
75 people rescued by EMERGENCY’s search and rescue vessel, Life Support, disembarked in the port of Vibo Valentia early this morning at 1:15am. The people rescued had been brought to safety in two separate operations carried out on Thursday 28 November, in international waters in the Maltese SAR zone.
“We have completed the disembarkation of the 75 people rescued,” says Domenico Pugliese, captain of Life Support. ”Everything went smoothly and with the support of the local authorities. It was the first time we were assigned Vibo Valentia. Finally, the authorities assigned us a port not far from the operational area. Now we are preparing for a new mission in the central Mediterranean.”
The people rescued had departed from the Libyan coast and come from Bangladesh, Egypt, Eritrea, Palestine, Pakistan, Syria and Sudan. All countries that are affected by armed conflict, political instability, poverty and the effects of the climate crisis.
Elena Mari, a doctor onboard Life Support, adds, “Both after the rescue and while sailing to Vibo Valentia, we monitored the health conditions of the people rescued. With the exception of a few cases of seasickness, dehydration and skin conditions, everyone was in a stable condition.”
“A young man from Eritrea, who fled his country so as not to be drafted into the army and not to take part in the ongoing conflict, told us that he has attempted the Mediterranean crossing four times,” says Chiara Picciocchi, a cultural mediator onboard Life Support. “In one of these attempts, the boat he was traveling on capsized, and he was saved only because he managed to swim back to Libya, where he then lived for another year. He dreams of going to northern Europe and building a better life for himself.”
A Palestinian on board recounts his experience: “I am from the old city of Gaza, I managed to escape to Egypt via Rafah and Sinai. I still did not know where to go, I just knew that I had to get out of Gaza after my father died in October 2023. For four months, I was in Cairo, where I had studied at the university. From there I took a plane to Benghazi, because luckily I had a passport that allowed me to avoid travelling across the desert.”
“I was told that if I went to Libya with my Palestinian passport then I could get a visa to go to Turkey and from there join my brother in Belgium, but then my visa application was refused by Turkey. Other countries, like Ireland and Holland, also refused visas so I was forced to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe. From Tripoli I tried twice, but in both cases we were intercepted by the Libyans, taken back and imprisoned. The third time I tried to make the trip, which was a few days ago, I did not want to leave because I saw that women and children would be taken on board: I had seen too many innocent people die in Gaza and I did not want to see more children die in front of me at sea. In the end I went, but I was predicting the worst, I didn’t think I would be rescued. Gaza for me is not just a name, a place, it is where my childhood and my family is, my land, I will never forget it. Now I just want to be able to join my brother in Belgium to start working and send money to my family who have nothing left, to try to get them out of Gaza too.”
This disembarkation marks the conclusion of Life Support’s 27th mission in the Mediterranean. EMERGENCY’s SAR vessel has been operating in the region since December 2022 and has so far rescued a total of 2,417 people.