Last night the ship Open Arms, with EMERGENCY workers on board, reached Porto Empedocle, the designated harbour for the 146 people it has rescued in the last few days. The Italian Red Cross gave them swabs for Covid-19 this morning, before they were put onto the ship Allegra for quarantine, or in shelters on land […]

Rome, 2 February 2021 – Four years to the day Libya and Italy signed their agreement to stem the flow of migrants from one to the other, the record is more saddening than ever, pointing to a failure of Italian and EU politics. Public funds are still going only on stopping people arriving in our […]

On the morning of 4 January 2021 and upon the instructions of the Italian authorities, the Open Arms vessel, which includes EMERGENCY personnel on board, waited in the harbour of Porto Empedocle in Sicily to begin the procedure of transferring the 265 rescued people onboard. After doctors from the Italian Red Cross carried out testing […]

 “We’re starting our work in Calabria at Crotone hospital, but we’re ready for other projects too.” These were EMERGENCY founder Gino Strada’s comments on us being asked to run a temporary hospital built by the Civil Protection Department in Crotone to ease the burden on the town’s old hospital. The decision was taken at a […]

Kabul was hit by heavy attacks this morning with approximately 23 missiles landing in the city. “It all happened very quickly: there was a rocket attack at just before 9am. Four or five landed near EMERGENCY’s Surgical Centre for War Victims. The first patients arrived within minutes and then many others began to arrive soon […]

After leaving the port of Barcelona on 4 November, the Open Arms vessel headed towards the Mediterranean for its 78th search and rescue mission, together with EMERGENCY. We have found ourselves having to operate in a difficult and dramatic context. There were many reports of boats in difficulty that needed to be rescued, but no […]