Lampedusa, 101 shipwrecked people rescued off the island: disembarkation will take place in Ravenna where they will arrive on August 31st

MILANO – During the night between Monday 26th and Tuesday 27th August the Life Supportthe ship of EMERGENCYcarried out two more rescues in the Maltese SAR zone, saving another 101 people. The shipwrecked people rescued this night joined the 158 people rescued in yesterday’s three interventions. On the instructions of the Italian authorities, the ship set course for Lampedusa to disembark 88 people. With the first of the two interventions last night, the Life Support rescued 57 people who were on an overcrowded and unstable boat, while with the second one he rescued another 44 shipwrecked people, reaching 101 people, who were added to the 156 already on board.

The landing first in Ancona, then up to Ravenna. “The port of disembarkation assigned to us by the authorities has changed from Ancona to Ravenna, even further north – comments Anabel Montes Mier, head of the mission Life Support – we will arrive after more than four days of navigation on the morning of August 31st. This means subjecting the shipwrecked, who already come from great suffering and long journeys, to additional days at sea, without being able to access 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”.

It all happened at 4 in the morning. The transfer of the 88 shipwrecked people from the EMERGENCY ship to an Italian Coast Guard patrol boat took place at 4:00 am, well off the coast of Lampedusa. The 88 people transferred and now disembarked on the island were identified among the most vulnerable people on board: elderly people, women, families. The 169 shipwrecked people on board, including 4 women and 8 minors, both unaccompanied and accompanied, come from Bangladesh, Egypt, Lebanon, Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria, Palestinian territories.

On board were minors, women, elderly people, and patients with chronic diseases. “The health conditions of the people on board are stable,” explains Roberto Maccaroni, the health manager of the Life Support – yesterday, however, we had to evacuate two people who were seriously unstable due to a very low oxygen level for medical reasons. This morning, we evacuated 88 people transferred to the Coast Guard vessel: they are minors, women, elderly people, patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and asthma to ensure that they were taken care of by health workers on land.”