Life Support | 64 Rescued People Disembark in Ortona

At 10:15am today, Tuesday 13 August, 64 people rescued by EMERGENCY's search and rescue ship, Life Support, disembarked in the port of Ortona. They had been rescued on Friday 9 August in two separate operations, both located in the international waters of the Maltese SAR region, in the central Mediterranean Sea. Their boats were small, unsuitable for the Mediterranean crossing and lacking any safety equipment.

A total of 65 people were rescued on this mission, including one woman, three accompanied children and seven unaccompanied children. During navigation, a medical evacuation had to be carried out for an unaccompanied minor at Roccella Ionica, Calabria."During the more than three days of navigation it took to reach Ortona, the rescued people had the opportunity to tell their stories, but above all they denounced what they had suffered during their time in Libya," explains Miriam Bouteraa, cultural mediator on board Life Support. "I recall in particular the story of a Syrian boy who testified how Libya is not, and cannot be considered, a safe haven at the end of a sea rescue operation. This boy told us, in fact, that he had suffered inhuman and degrading treatment in Libyan prisons, that he had seen and experienced violence of all kinds, so the first thing he wants to do in Europe is to denounce what happens in the country. Now this boy has disembarked, his dream is to study medicine here in Europe and we can only wish the best to him and to all the other rescued people who have finally reached land today."

Ocean navigator Ambrogio Beccaria, on board as a rescuer in this mission, commented upon landing: "I joined EMERGENCY's Life Support on this mission for three reasons: because I am Italian, I am European and I am a sailor. Migration affects us all, because people arrive in Italy, but then move in search of work and a better life all over Europe. After that, one of the founding values of going to sea is to save anyone in distress in the water. All this is very, very important to my values."

The 64 rescued people who disembarked today come from Bangladesh, Egypt, Eritrea and Syria, countries affected by war, violence, poverty, and economic and political insecurity.

"In my country, I was threatened several times for my ideas," a Syrian boy on board told us. "I was afraid for my safety and of being disappeared like so many others in Syria in the past years, so I decided to leave to try to reach Europe. The journey lasted more than two years and only now did I manage to leave Libya, where from the beginning my experience was marked by violence and exploitation, at the mercy of traffickers, militiamen, police. I tried to make the journey nine times and eight times I was arrested, or our boat broke down shortly after departure and we had to swim back. During these two years and counting, with my companions in misfortune we were beaten, tortured, sold like merchandise from one militia group to another. In Libya, every foreigner is seen as a commodity for the traffickers: through ransoms or by reducing people to slavery, they profit off of the thousands of migrants who go to Libya to seek a better future. In these two years I have seen everything, but I have always kept a hope alive: that one day I would be able to reach Europe," he concludes. "And, thanks to you today, I can finally set foot in a safe country for the first time in my life."

"I left my country because I was promised a secure job and a quiet life in Libya, but I did not know what I was getting into," says a young Bangladeshi boy on board. "There are people in Bangladesh who convince you to leave for Libya to work. In fact, when I arrived there with a group of other boys, they took us to a house in the middle of nowhere where they kept us locked up until they took us to work in a supermarket. A month and a half after I started working, I still hadn't been paid my first salary, and if I protested they threatened me with violence. I realised I would never find a decent place to work in Libya. They would never pay me, because coming from Bangladesh they knew they could afford to exploit me. So I ran away and decided to try to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe. The boat they gave us was very small for all of us, but at that point I could not go back, I had to leave, I would never return to Libya. I was very scared the first night at sea because there was no moon, the sky and the sea merged into a dark blur and it seemed as if the sea would never end. Luckily the second night you found us, now I hope I can help my family."

EMERGENCY's ship Life Support, which has been conducting search and rescue operations in the central Mediterranean since December 2022, has completed its 23rd mission and rescued a total of 1,962 people. Starting tomorrow, it is preparing to depart once again. The central Mediterranean is one of the world's deadliest migration routes, where there have been more than 23,700 victims since 2014. Working to protect the human rights of people on the move, starting with the right to life, is the right thing to do.

Life Support was the last great project of Gino Strada, surgeon and founder of EMERGENCY, who passed away 3 years ago today, on 13 August 2021. For this reason, one of his quotes is written on the sides of the ship: "Human rights must be for all humans, every single one. If not, we should call them privileges," summing up the philosophy that inspires Life Support, and all of EMERGENCY's projects.