From our correspondent on board the Emergency Life support
“All Emergency staff, all Emergency staff, mission completed”. It is 10.42am on Monday 4 November when the voice of Jonathan Nanì La Torre officially announces the conclusion of the 25th Life Support search and rescue mission, the Emergency ship. The mission ends with the landing on land of the last of the 72 people rescued at sea, in two different operations, on 31 October.
The Life Support, commanded by Domenico Pugliese, entered the port of Livorno at 7 in the morning. A boat from the Guardia di Finanza and another from the Coast Guard escorted her. After docking at the dock, officials from the police, 118 and the Red Cross came on board. The first to get off the ship was a boy from Niger with fever and respiratory problems. Then everyone else got out. Men, women, girls and boys, even a group of unaccompanied minors. The greetings and hugs between the rescued people and the Emergency rescuers were touching.
We found these people in the middle of the Mediterranean, in the international waters of the Maltese SAR zone, on rudimentary boats, with engines out of order, that were taking on water. Luckily the sea was calm and the temperature mild, but how long could they have resisted in those conditions?
The 72 shipwrecked people, including 14 women, 4 accompanied minors and 7 minors traveling alone, had left from the Libyan coast and come from Bangladesh, Egypt, Nigeria, Niger, Pakistan, Palestine and Syria, countries affected by violence, political instability, poverty and climate crisis.
“After more than three days of navigation we arrived in Livorno for the disembarkation of the rescued people, an operation which took place regularly and in collaboration with the local authorities – says Domenico Pugliese, commander of EMERGENCY Life Support -. It is disconcerting to know that in these very same days the government has decided to continue along the path of the Memorandum of Understanding with the‘Albania and‘externalization of borders, without even waiting for the ruling of the European Court of Justice. We wish the 72 castaways who were finally able to come ashore today all the best as we prepare for the next mission.”
The EMERGENCY Sar ship has so far rescued 2,293 people in the central Mediterranean.
