On board LIfe Support, Mediterranean Sea
This morning, around 11.30, I boarded the RIB, the super-fast dinghy of the Emergency ship which represented the face of salvation for 38 people adrift in the Mediterranean, in the international waters of the Sahara area. The castaways were on board a boat that appeared to be made of plastic, with broken engines. They were wearing very rudimentary life jackets: 14 women, 20 men, 4 minors, including two unaccompanied.
The report of the case in difficulty arrived before 9am from Alarm Phone and was subsequently also confirmed on VHF channel 16 by a mayday relay with which we were also provided with an update on his position. The boat was spotted with binoculars from the bridge shortly after receiving the report. From the deck of the ship, the fast inflatable boats, the RIBs, on which we had practiced in recent days, were lowered into the water. On my RIB, number 1, there were the pilot, the boat leader, an Italian-Palestinian nurse and an Italian cultural mediator.
In a few minutes we reached the drifting boat. The people on board were quite calm: the rain had stopped, the sun was shining and the sea was calm. The cultural mediator stood up and reassured the castaways by speaking in Arabic, telling them to stay calm, that we were not Libyans and that we would take them to Italy, to a safe port. The first thing we did was secure people by throwing life jackets at them.
After the migrants put on their jackets, the transfer to our boat began. The first to get on was a man of about 50-60 years old, perhaps the most debilitated, barefoot and in pain, who lay down next to me at the bottom of the dinghy. Then a younger boy got on and gradually the other people. Everything happened calmly, in a surreal calm: the people were not agitated, a boy immediately turned towards me and said “thank you”. Shortly after, another added “you are beautiful, you are beautiful” to thank us for saving them from the shipwreck in the Mediterranean.
The second RIB then also left, on which the remaining people were loaded. Everyone was taken aboard the “Life Support”, Emergency’s search and rescue ship, where they were taken care of by the medical staff. Fortunately, there are no particular health emergencies. The people have changed, refreshed, washed and some of them are still resting in the covered part of the ship, while others are on the outside deck. I spoke to some of them, mostly from Syria, Nigeria, Palestine and Niger, the majority Syrian. Some told me that they would like to go to Holland, like a family with relatives in the Netherlands, while another boy would like to go to Germany. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at this rescue operation, which rescued them from an extremely difficult situation.
They left at 2 am on October 30 from the Libyan city of Misurata and spent the night at sea. They told me that it was a very difficult night, where all hope was resurrected at the sight of a light in the distance, whether it was a passing ship or just the stars. Then, finally, “Life Support” arrived: salvation, the end of a nightmare. As soon as a boy gets on board he makes the sign of the cross and blows a kiss to the sky.
Life Support then carried out a second rescue in the Maltese SAR area. 34 people were recovered and rescued, including 5 unaccompanied minors. They come from Pakistan, Syria, Egypt, Bangladesh. In total, 72 people were rescued today. The assigned destination is the port of Livorno, where arrival is scheduled for November 4th.
