by Roberto Zichittella
sent aboard the “Life Support”
This morning at 9 Domenico Pugliese, the commander of the Life Supportthe Emergency search and rescue ship, announced to the 72 people rescued at sea on Thursday 31 October that the port of disembarkation will be Livorno. The announcement was made on the deck of the ship, with the help of a geographical map of Italy and with the translation into Arabic by a cultural mediator who made himself heard by everyone thanks to a megaphone. The shipwrecked people rescued in the waters between Malta and Libya, mostly Syrians, listened attentively and filmed the scene with their cell phones. Then there were shouts of joy and an impromptu song.
But the journey is still long. We will only be in Livorno early Monday morning. Luckily the sea is almost calm and the sun is shining. Early this morning Life Support it passed off the island of Marettimo and is proceeding north. The assignment of safe disembarkation ports far from the operational areas is unfortunately a constant. In the 24 previous missions of the Life Support this resulted in 56 extra days of navigation, 22,600 extra kilometers and an additional expense of almost 940 thousand euros.
However, the long navigation does not seem to agitate the rescued people. They hang out and sleep on the covered deck (la shelter area), where they have breakfast at 7, lunch at 12 and dinner at 6. During the day they go up to the outdoor deck. Men and boys smoke. We talk, we look at the sea, we take photos. Some are very sociable, others are more solitary and taciturn. Countless selfies with the Emergency staff.
The first rescue operation on Thursday brought to safety 38 people (14 women, 4 accompanied minors and 2 traveling alone) from Syria, Nigeria, Palestine and Niger. The second operation, in the late afternoon, recovered 34 people from Pakistan, Syria, Egypt and Bangladesh. Among them also 5 unaccompanied minors.
Behind them they leave wars, abuses, violence, bereavement, poverty and economic precariousness. When they talk about the Libyans they make the sign of a blade on the throat, of handcuffed wrists and they put their fingers in the shape of a gun. For many of them, the last months before leaving must have been terrible. Then one night it was time to leave. Without luggage. Just the documents and the phone. In search of a better future, facing the unknown where Africa ends and the sea begins.
