On the morning of 12 December, EMERGENCY’s search and rescue ship Life Support rescued a boat in distress in the Mediterranean sea, within the international waters of the Libyan SAR zone. On board were 34 people, including one unaccompanied child.
Before the rescue, at about 1:20 a.m. on Thursday 12 December, two boats – one with its lights on and one with them off – approached Life Support and via radio contact ordered the ship to leave the Libyan SAR zone. One boat continued to monitor Life Support until about 4:30 a.m. Additionally, a boat from the Libyan group Stability Support Apparatus was in the same vicinity as Life Support from approximately 8:00 a.m., but did not come into contact with the crew.
“Around noon, we completed the rescue of a boat in distress. It was overcrowded and had 34 people on board,” explains Jonathan Naní la Terra, SAR Team Leader on board Life Support. “Our rescue team quickly distributed life jackets to everyone and brought the 34 people safely on board our ship, where we carried out initial medical checks. Earlier, our ship was approached by two small unidentified boats that ordered us to leave the Libyan SAR zone.”
The rescued people reported that they left at 11:00 p.m. on Wednesday 11 December, from Zwara, Libya. Their countries of origin include Sudan and Pakistan, countries devastated by armed conflicts, political instability, poverty and the climate crisis.
After completing the rescue and informing the relevant authorities, Life Support was assigned the port of Ancona as the Place of Safety. The ship also made itself available for further interventions and the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) authorised a delay in the arrival in port.
Operational in the central Mediterranean since December 2022, Life Support is carrying out its 28th mission. It has rescued 2,451 people.