Cyclone Harry stopped the ship of ResQ – People Saving People, but not the activity and commitment of the humanitarian organization. The serious damage caused in Sicily and Southern Italy has in fact made ResQPeople unusable, forcing the association to interrupt search and rescue missions in the Mediterranean.
To purchase a new boat and return to the sea, the humanitarian organization ResQ launched the “Together, let’s return to the sea” campaign, a fundraiser accompanied by a series of public initiatives, including a solidarity auction and a challenge on social networks.
Since 2020, the organization’s ship has rescued and rescued 496 people. The project, underlines ResQ, however, does not only concern the replacement of a vessel: the objective is to bring back to the central Mediterranean a civil garrison capable of carrying out search, rescue and testimony activities along one of the most dangerous migratory routes in the world.
According to data reported by the organization, between 2014 and 2024 over 30 thousand people dead or missing were registered in the Mediterranean. Also including estimates for 2025, the number of victims would be close to 33 thousand. In the first half of 2026, the central Mediterranean also confirms itself as the deadliest migratory route in the world: data from the International Organization for Migration and humanitarian agencies indicate almost 800 victims in a single quarter and almost a thousand people who have died since the beginning of the year.
One of the main initiatives of the campaign will be the social challenge «A thousand boats, one ship». The ResQ community, together with representatives of the world of culture and entertainment, will be invited to publish a video in which a paper boat is built.
The ResQPeople ship. Photo Tommaso Montaldo.
The journalist Gad Lerner, the musician Paolo Fresu, the actress Stefania Rocca, the actor and author Alessandro Bergonzoni and the director Ferdinando Vicentini Orgnani have already joined and relaunched the initiative. Other personalities, the organization says, will participate in the coming weeks.
The fundraising will be accompanied by a solidarity auction organized through the Charity Stars platform. Objects and tools used on board the ResQPeople during search and rescue missions will be on sale: life jackets, a compass, nautical charts, the on-board thermometer, an ammeter and some engine room pressure gauges.
Some of the objects will be mounted on supports made from wood recovered from boats wrecked along the Sicilian coast. The material was processed by the Rò La Formichina social cooperative, belonging to the Papa Giovanni XXIII Community Association. Objects which, in the organisation’s intentions, should not be considered simple heirlooms, but testimonies of the crossings and lives entrusted to the sea.
«ResQ was born from the belief that saving a life is not a political choice, but a human duty and an obligation established by the law of the sea», explains Luciano Scalettari, co-founder and president of ResQ – People Saving People.
Scalettari recalls that in 2020 the organization decided to put a civil society ship into sea to rescue people in danger and document what happens along the Mediterranean border. «Today that ship is no longer there. Cyclone Harry destroyed it, but it did not erase the responsibility we feel towards the people who continue to cross the Mediterranean risking their lives.”
“We lost a vessel, not the reason why we put it into sea,” continues the president. «Every day in which ResQPeople is not present in the Mediterranean is a day in which there is no civilian presence capable of helping, testifying and affirming a simple principle: no person should die because they have not found someone willing to lend them a hand».
The campaign is launched a few days after the visit of Pope Leo XIV to Lampedusa, during which the Pontiff drew attention to the victims of the sea and the tragedy of migration in the Mediterranean.
ResQ also recalls the words spoken by Pope Francis when the organization was received in audience: «We welcome the action of those who do not limit themselves to observing things, criticizing from afar, but get involved, offering a little of their time, their ingenuity and their resources to alleviate the suffering of migrants, to save them, welcome them and integrate them».
«Together, let’s go back to sea» therefore aims to be not only a fundraiser, but also an invitation to participation and collective responsibility. The objective is to restore to the Mediterranean a civil presence capable of saving lives and bearing witness to what happens daily along the route that leads to Europe.
