At least five vessels belonging to as many non-governmental organizations have returned to sea in recent days to carry out rescue operations for shipwrecked people off the Mediterranean coast, when the presentation of the decree announced by the government in the coming weeks on the so-called code of conduct for NGOs is just around the corner . These are the German Rise Above and the Panamanian Life Support, which land with migrants in these hours in Gioia Tauro and Livorno, and the German Sea Eye 4, in addition to the British sailing ship Astral of Open Arms and the Norwegian ship Ocean Viking of Sos Mediterranée just set sail.
The German Sea Eye not yet landed
The Norwegian Geo Barents of Médecins Sans Frontières will leave immediately after Christmas while it is not excluded that it may later also be joined by the Germans Humanity 1 and Louise Michel, who have just completed missions with landings in Bari and Lampedusa and are currently stationary in Spain together with the Iberian Open Arms One. The Sea Eye 4 of the NGO of the same name, which flies the German flag, has on board 63 migrants rescued in the last few hours. Among these there are also those recovered from the ship Rise Above (also German and of Mission Lifeline) which, after providing people with life jackets and stabilizing the situation, made them board the Sea Eye. The Italian authorities have assigned Livorno as the port of unloading. But it appears that the ship has currently changed course to perform another rescue.
The port of Livorno was assigned to Emergency’s Life Support
The Rise Above, which later carried out another rescue, then received authorization from the Italian authorities for the disembarkation in the port of Gioia Tauro of 27 Syrians, including 9 women, 2 children, 3 elderly people and 1 unaccompanied minor. The Life Support of Emergency, which flies the Panamanian flag, was instead assigned the port of Livorno after the rescue of 70 shipwrecked people in the Libyan sar area. Among the survivors there are 5 women, one of whom is seven months pregnant, 2 children under the age of 2 and 24 unaccompanied minors aged 13 and over. They come from Somalia, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Mali.
Open Arms One back at sea by Christmas
Also at sea is the Astral, which flies the flag of the United Kingdom, is one of the Open Arms vessels and is mainly involved in monitoring operations. The last three ships that have completed their missions in recent days have been the German Humanity 1 of Sos Humanity (with 261 migrants coming mainly from Cameroon, Egypt, Syria and Ivory Coast) and the Louise Michel of the homonymous NGO (she had on board 33 migrants of Egyptian nationality), who disembarked their survivors respectively in Bari and Lampedusa. The two ships are stationary in Spain together with the Iberian Open Arms Uno of the NGO of the same name, which has announced that it will resume navigation at sea by Christmas. The Norwegian Geo Barents of Médecins Sans Frontières, which landed in Salerno (with 248 migrants from Cameroon, Eritrea, the Ivory Coast and other African countries) is stationary in Augusta and will leave immediately after Christmas.
Shipwreck off Lampedusa, dead child
Meanwhile, a new shipwreck must be registered: 43 were rescued off the coast of Lampedusa. But a five-year-old girl who was on the sunken boat died at the Poliambulatorio di Lampedusa. Her little girl traveled with her mother. The soldiers of the Port Authority rescued the migrants. They would not be missing, according to what emerges at the moment.