Life Support | Another 101 People Rescued Overnight

During the night between Monday 26 and Tuesday 27 August, EMERGENCY NGO's search and rescue vessel, Life Support, carried out two more rescues in the Maltese SAR area, rescuing a further 101 people, in addition to the 158 already rescued during this mission. On the instructions of the Italian authorities, Life Support sailed to Lampedusa to disembark 88 people.

With the first of last night's two operations, Life Support rescued 57 people who were on an overcrowded and unstable vessel, while with the second it rescued a further 44 people, bringing the total to 101.

"The port of disembarkation assigned to us by the authorities has changed from Ancona to Ravenna, even further north,"says Anabel Montes Mier, Life Support's Head of Mission. "We will arrive after more than four days of navigation on the morning of 31 August. This means subjecting the rescued people, who have already experienced great suffering and long journeys, to further days at sea without access to the structured network of services and delaying the possibility of applying for international protection. And for us it means more days away from the central Mediterranean, where there is a dramatic need for SAR ships."

The transfer of 88 rescued people from the EMERGENCY ship to an Italian Coast Guard patrol boat took place at 04.00 a.m. off the coast of Lampedusa, where they then disembarked.

"The medical condition of the people on board is stable,"explains Roberto Maccaroni, EMERGENCY medic on board Life Support."Yesterday, however, we had to evacuate two people who were seriously unstable for medical reasons due to a very low level of oxygenation. This morning, we evacuated 88 people who were transferred onto the Coast Guard vessel: they were children, women, the elderly, and patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and asthma, so that they could be taken care of by the medical staff ashore."

The Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) has assigned Life Support Ravenna as the Place of Safety for disembarkation. The EMERGENCY ship, with 169 rescued people on board, is due to arrive there during the morning of 31 August.

Operating in the Central Mediterranean since December 2022, EMERGENCY's ship is currently on its 24th search and rescue mission. To date, it has rescued a total of 2,221 people.