26 / Aug / 2024

Mediterranea-Migrantes: 182 Menschen in 24 Stunden gerettet

After the first intervention in cooperation with the Italian Coast Guard, between Saturday and Sunday two more rescue operations by the Mare Jonio ship with the support of the Migrantes Foundation sailboat.

After the first intervention in cooperation with the Italian Coast Guard, between Saturday and Sunday two more rescue operations by the Mare Jonio ship with the support of the Migrantes Foundation sailboat.

Thanks to overflights by Pilotes Volontaires' civilian observation plane Hummingbird, Mare Jonio was able to find a wooden boat that was about to sink with 67 people on board, including sixteen women and about fifteen children. Our Rescue Team reached the boat in distress in the corridor between Tunisia and Lampedusa and immediately began distributing life jackets and securing the boat. A few minutes later, a Coast Guard patrol boat arrived, rescued the people in distress and then disembarked them in Lampedusa

On the night of Saturday-Sunday Mare Jonio carried out its second rescue operation, after struggling to locate in the dark an overloaded dinghy that was at imminent risk of shipwreck in international waters south of Lampedusa. Thus 50 people, including two women and as many as 43 unaccompanied minors, were evacuated to the MARE JONIO. Waters south of Lampedusa. Thus 50 people, including two women and as many as 43 unaccompanied minors, were evacuated to the MARE JONIO.

Shortly after the conclusion of operations aboard the Mediterranea ship, a Coast Guard patrol boat intervened and transferred the shipwrecked people from the MARE JONIO to also disembark in Lampedusa.

Around 6:10 a.m., with the first light of dawn on Sunday 25, Mare Jonio spotted a fiberglass boat almost 40 miles south of Lampedusa at risk of imminent sinking. On board were 65 people, including five unaccompanied minors who were being rescued by Mediterranea's Rescue Team in the third operation of this Mission 18.

Once they were safely embarked on the Mare Jonio and given initial care by our Medical and Health Team, signs were evident, for most of them, of the violence they had endured while in Libya.

It is also important to point out that although all three rescue operations occurred in SAR areas under Maltese jurisdiction, the informed Maltese authorities themselves could never be reached and never offered their assistance in these cases. Mare Jonio has therefore always coordinated with its flag maritime rescue center, EN MRCC in Rome, which for the last 65 people rescued has assigned the port of Pozzallo as a “safe place of disembarkation” where the Mediterranea ship is scheduled to arrive in the early morning hours of Monday, Aug. 26.

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