On 22 April 2025, 82 people rescued by EMERGENCY’s ship Life Support disembarked at the port of Ravenna. They had been rescued in the international waters of the Libyan SAR zone.
“The disembarkation proceeded without a hitch. I would like to thank the authorities and the volunteers who assisted us, their cooperation helps to make the operations fast and smooth,” commented Domenico Pugliese, captain of Life Support. “Now that all the rescued people are finally safe on land, we only wish them the best for the future.”
On Thursday 17 April, Life Support performed a rescue operation in international waters, rescuing 82 people, including 27 minors. They had been in the water for more than 14 hours on an overcrowded dinghy with deflated tubes. After completing the rescue and informing the relevant authorities, Life Support was assigned Ravenna as the Place of Safety, over 900 miles from the point of rescue.
Chiara Picciocchi, Cultural Mediator on board Life Support**, says,** “I was very touched by the story of a single mother who set off with her daughter on a dangerous and difficult journey, in order to ensure a better life for herself and her child. I wish them and all the survivors the best of luck in seeing their dreams come true.”
The survivors reported leaving from Zawiya, Libya. Of the 82 rescued, 11 were women, three were accompanied minors and 24 were unaccompanied minors.
“I arrived in Libya in 2023, where they immediately imprisoned me for nine months. My family had to pay 10,000 US dollars to get me out,” said an unaccompanied minor rescued by Life Support. “After I was released, the traffickers took me to Tripoli, but I was arrested once again and taken to Oussama prison. To get out, they demanded another $10,000. There is no life in that prison. People die in there, there are no clothes, no food, no water. People get beaten, people die. Only by paying you can get out.”
“I escaped from Ethiopia to Sudan, but there was war there too,” the boy continued. “I had never thought of coming to Europe, but everywhere I went I found violence. But what I experienced in Libya was worse than the war. Now that I am finally safe, I feel like I have been born a second time and I only ask one thing: talk about those who are still in prison in Libya. These people live in inhuman conditions and have no voice, but you can make them heard.”
The survivors’ countries of origin include Ghana, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Sudan and Togo: countries that are affected by armed conflict, political instability, poverty and climate crisis.
One young woman rescued by Life Support recounts, “There was war in my country. I was wounded in the leg and after I recovered, I began the journey. I was with five boys. The traffickers immediately tried to sexually abuse me, I kept refusing them and they started beating me with the butt of a gun. In the Sahara desert, they gave us water mixed with petrol to drink, we had no right to food or water. If we asked for anything, they beat us. Then they hid us in a prison, where I kept bleeding and being beaten all over my body. When they finally released us, they sold us to Libyan policemen and we were imprisoned again.”
“They tortured us there as well. In that second prison I saw terrible things. Women died. A Somali mother could not breastfeed her baby because she had no milk, and the baby died. I never imagined that the journey could become so inhuman. We Eritreans and Ethiopian Christians were treated worse than others, worse than Muslims. Only when my family managed to raise $2,200 did they let me go. Even today I cannot believe I crossed the sea, it feels like a dream. I ask anyone who is able to help those who are still in Libyan jails. I hope I can help my family, my dream is to be able to bring them to Europe and have them close.”
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In 2024, the Italian government’s practice of assigning distant ports for disembarkation to NGO rescue ships forced Life Support to travel an average of 630 extra miles per mission, requiring 59 unnecessary days of sailing to get to and from the SAR zone: valuable time taken away from search and rescue activities.
To safeguard the right to life at sea, EMERGENCY makes five recommendations to Italy, the EU and relevant international organisations in its new report, ‘An Inhumane Border: Saving Lives in the Mediterranean Sea,’ including to place the protection of life at sea at the centre of every decision in the central Mediterranean, and revoke border externalisation practices and policies such as the Italy-Albania Protocol and EU-Tunisia Memorandum of Understanding.
Life Support has completed its 31st mission in the central Mediterranean. Since December 2022, the ship has rescued a total of 2,783 people.
You can read the report, ‘An Inhumane Border: Saving Lives in the Mediterranean Sea,’ here.