Life Support | Port Changed to Naples Due to Adverse Weather

The Place of Safety (POS) assigned to EMERGENCY’s search and rescue ship Life Support has been changed following a request by the NGO over a drastic worsening of sea conditions. The Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Rome has assigned Naples as the new port of disembarkation. Life Support is scheduled to arrive on Tuesday 8 April around 8:30 a.m.

On Saturday 5 April, Life Support carried out three rescue operations in the international waters of the Libyan SAR zone, bringing a total of 215 people to safety on board. The authorities initially assigned Ancona as POS but on the morning of Sunday 6 April, facing significantly deteriorated weather forecasts over the Ionian Sea and the southern Adriatic, Life Support requested a more southern port, either for refuge or disembarkation.

Domenico Pugliese, captain of Life Support, explains: “We completed a transfer of 44 of the rescued people to a Coast Guard vessel on Saturday 5 April, while the other 171 remained on board. Once the transfer was completed, the MRCC of Rome contacted us and accepted our request to change the port of disembarkation due to adverse weather and assigned us the Place of Safety of Naples, where we will arrive tomorrow morning at 8:30am. We thank the competent authorities for their cooperation and for accepting our request.”

The 44 people who were transferred to the Italian Coast Guard ship were identified as some of the most vulnerable survivors, including minors, families with small children, and those who were extremely fatigued, had chemical burns from the mixture of fuel and sea water, or suffered from chronic diseases.

Meanwhile, the Life Support team continue to care for the remaining 171 rescued people on board, including examinations and stablisations by the medical staff. There are no critical or medical emergencies, but the survivors have had very difficult experiences.
Life Support is completing its 30th mission in the Central Mediterranean, having been operational in this region since December 2022. The ship has rescued a total of 2,701 people.