“THEOr last year, on March 13, 2024, I happened to identify an inflatable boat with binoculars, and it seemed strange to us, because there were few people on board. When we launched our rescue boats and we arrived close, we realized that only 25 men remained. They had been at sea for a week and had seen about sixty travel companions die, including all women and a one and a half year old boy ». It is just one of the many testimonies of Luisa Trera, head of the research and rescue coordinator of the Ocean Viking, ship authorized to carry out research and rescue operations on behalf of Sos méditerranée, A network of humanitarian organizations active in France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland.
«Unfortunately, we continue to do our job at sea. It is necessary. In the absence of a European research and rescue mission, We can only try to save as many lives as possible. But the situation is getting worse and few words have remained: We are increasingly hindered, we have become targets of the haters “adds from its station in the command bridge. Luisa, 55, from Turin, several years of work on the shoulders, first as computer consultant, then in the navy With experiences with NGOs dealing with environmental protection and finally with Sos Méditerranée: “As Italian, the problem of deaths at sea touch me closely”.
In the central Mediterranean, in general indifference, according to the international organization for migration (OIM), Since 2014, 32,125 people have died or disappeared, “immensely underestimated”, according to the same organization.
The mother ship Ocean Viking after embarking 70 people saved shortly before dawn in international waters in the Libyan Sar area. The survivors, all men, including 2 unaccompanied minors, are by Bangladesh, except one from Egypt. They were on a fiberglass boat in Distress (Laura Salvinelli).
On board the Ocean Viking
We are aboard the Ocean Viking to know the Stories of women who work in research and rescueworld that, like the navy, traditionally excluded them before the arrival of the NGOs. Why, while The world closes its eyesare these women at sea? Justine (to avoid problems we do not disclose the aside the known one of Luisa), Breton, 31 years old, a member of the crew of one of the three rescue inflatable boats, has no doubt: “I work in this organization because it is financially independent. As for the purpose of the mission this is simply save those in danger at sea. Here we are at the intersection of the humanitarian worldwhich operates according to sometimes different laws between individual states, and the maritime one, which requires immediate solidarity».
In PP Morgane, Ez3 Crew, and Stefan, Ez3 Leader/Logistician. Exercise in water on the Rhib (Laura Salvinelli).
Caterina is 41 years old, is originally from Montepulciano and lives in Berlin, is a doctor and head of the medical team. Would save all people in danger: “Nobody deserves to be cold and hungrynot to know how to go to the bathroom, to try the fear that the boat will turn into or piercethat you are going in the wrong direction, to be reported in hell where it has already been. I met people who tried the crossing 8, 10 times ». Françoise, 50 years old, Breton of birth and Parisian by adoption, nurse, has never been an activist: It is at sea to help those who need it. He says: “We are now all considered activists on the verge of crime. AND Deeply unfair to attack those who try to prevent people from drowning. It’s not normal ».
Caterina, Medical Team Leader. Water exercise on the Rhib Eazy 1 (Laura Salvinelli).
Morgane is 29 years old and comes from the French hinterland. When he moved to Marseille he came to her “the great idea of becoming a marineia”. Then he discovered the world of research and rescue, and is now part of the crew of one of the rescue inflatable boats. «On the rubber boat there is a very strong physical contact with the castaways. Sometimes they fall into your arms, they entrust their children to you. You can no longer accept the narration of the media or politics, which denies their humanity ».
Camille, 33 years old, raised in Belgium by an Italian dad expat, has touched firsthand by the theme of migration because it has always felt foreign, both in Belgium and in Italy. Has dedicated his work to the defense of the rights of migrants and refugees. He is the head of the protection team, which gives reliable information on the rights of people who arrive in Italy.
Camille, Protection Team Leader. Sighting with the binoculars on the command bridge. The shifts never stop (Laura Salvinelli).
Also for the growth of Nura The theme of migration was fundamental. Born 32 years ago in Italy from Moroccan mom and Lebanese dad, she studied oriental languages, she traveled for seven years in the Middle East, and from there she began her career in the social sphere. It is now a cultural facilitator. He admits: “Do you think you help migrants because you feel emancipated, and in the end you find that they are the ones to teach you so much.” Rebecca, 33 years old, Welsh transferred to Bristol, midwife, says: “When you come back from a mission you are not like before. Humanitarian work shows you the best and the worst of humanity. In the research and rescue find out that People are no longer considered such, they are reduced to numbers, problems, crisis. We are also at sea to listen to their stories, their hopes, their dreams. Let’s see their resilience, what they fought, how much they helped themselves between strangers. We also see devastating things that consume us over time. I remember all the names of those who have lost on board, but in one case we had to wait a year to get to know him, during which I suffered a lot. It was the name of Rahaf, a 7 -year -old girl who started with her family. When it was carried on board, he had a cardiac arrest. We managed to make his heart beat again, but then he didn’t make it ».
Rescue of 70 people on a fiberglass boat in distress in international waters in the Libyan Sar area. The crew of the Rhib Eazy 1: Salva, Sar Team Leader and leader of the Rhib, Justine and Amine (Laura Salvinelli).
Women are true fighters
Among the survivors of the world’s most lethal route, women are about 15 percent. They leave their homes and families for the same reasons as men: conflicts, persecution, poverty, famine … to which they are added Domestic and sexual violence, forced marriages. Sometimes they travel with their children to protect them, to avoid daughters genital mutilations.
In Sin Françoise, Nurse, and DX Charlotta, Midwife. The medical team takes care of the 70 survivors just saved (Laura Salvinelli).
Some children were born in the terrible Libyan detention centers. They start mostly alone, which makes them even more vulnerable, and ad Very high risk of rape, kidnapping and sexual exploitation. The team of the first ship by Sos Méditerranée, Aquarius, in 2017 rescued a woman from a boat who had the newborn, Christ, Still attached to itself with the umbilical cord.
Camille is deeply affected by the violence that women meet in their countries of origin and traveling. He was a victim of sexual violence, and he believes it is right and healthy to talk about it. And it is equally inspired in work and in life by their resistance. For Françoise, when he sees them on the boat, they are pure vulnerability. But when he listens to them, they are pure hope. Morgane respects them because they are fightersmuch stronger than her, and because they made her understand how lucky she is: “I wish they had my freedom, and even more”. There is none, among them, that you do not underline their resilience with admiration.
A humanitarian tragedy
It is June 13th. Shortly before dawn, the Ocean Viking team saved 70 men, including two unaccompanied minors, All of Bangladesh except one of Egypt, in international waters in the Libyan research and rescue area. They traveled crammed on a fiberglass boat.“All migrants’ boats are in danger” Luisa denounces, “because overcrowded and without life -saving, fuel, water and food necessary to carry out the crossing. If they arrive in Lampedusa it is only because they are lucky, The sea was not too agitated, they did not get lost, they did not overturn, the Libyan coast guard did not shoot him on him ».
Luisa Trera, Sar Coordinator, leader, in the bridge (Laura Salvinelli).
The law planted (n.15/2023) obliges ships to go as soon as possible in the assigned portshindering multiple bailouts. Practice often assigns distant ports -only to NGO ships, which have transported 11 percent of migrants to Italy in the last two years on average -. This is why we sailed three days to land 70 shipwrecked in the port of Marina di Carrara, 624 nautical miles, that is, almost 1,160 kilometers, from the place of rescue. The ship has certificates to be able to transport 400. To reach distant ports, in two years the Ocean Viking has traveled 63,207 kilometers, adding 171 days of navigation and more than 1,332,208 euros in fuel. SortAbove all, he had to extend the suffering of survivors and reduce the average number of people saved from 278 to 128 per mission.
Sos Méditerranée since 2016 has rescued 42,524 people. He has three purposes: save as many lives as possible, protect them until arrival in a safe place and testify to the humanitarian tragedy in the Mediterranean, giving voice to the survivors and paying tribute to the dead keeping its memory alive.
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