This afternoon, around 4:40 PM, the disembarkation in the port of Naples of the 113 shipwrecked people rescued by Life Support, Emergency's search and rescue vessel, following two separate operations in the central Mediterranean. Exhausted men, three of them unaccompanied minors, landed after days of fear and survival at sea, but above all after a journey marked by violence, abuse, and deprivation.
The migrants had departed from the Libyan coast and were rescued in two separate operations: the first, on the night of December 12th to 13th, allowed 69 people to be rescued in the Libyan SAR zone; the second, on the evening of December 14th, involved another 44 people intercepted in the Maltese SAR zone. They came from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Egypt, countries affected by political instability, economic crises, and climate disasters—contexts that, Emergency emphasizes, cannot be considered safe.
Aboard the Life Support, many found the courage to share their experiences before the crossing. Libyan detention centers are once again emerging as places of systematic violence, where people are locked up without rights, subjected to torture, constant threats, and forced to live in inhumane sanitary conditions. Some of the survivors bear the visible signs of the mistreatment they endured. The crew's hope is that they can now rebuild a future in Italy or Europe, far from that cycle of abuse.
Among the testimonies collected, that of a young Bangladeshi man conveys the profound meaning of flight. In his country, he says, corruption, unemployment, and devastating floods drove him to leave. In Libya, he experienced a life of nothing but exploitation and fear, culminating in his arrest by militias and detention. He attempted to cross the sea three times, being intercepted or forced to turn back, before finally being rescued. Today, his desire is simple: to work and build a future.
The central Mediterranean, however, continues to be one of the world's deadliest migration routes. Since the beginning of the year, more than a thousand people have been reported dead or missing, and tens of thousands of people have been intercepted and forcibly returned to Libya. During this mission, Life Support also witnessed possible interceptions and collective pushbacks, practices considered illegal and which, according to Emergency, expose migrants to the concrete risk of further violence.
The landing in Naples marks the end of the Life Support's thirty-ninth mission. Since December 2022, the ship has rescued more than three thousand people. These numbers reveal an ongoing emergency and a situation that continues to challenge Europe on the need to place the protection of life at the center of every decision in the Mediterranean.
Source EDITORIAL TEAM
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