Rome, 7 Apr. (LaPresse) – They all disembarked last night at 1.15am in the port of Lampedusa and the 28 people rescued yesterday afternoon by the Safira sailboat of Mediterranea Saving Humans are all well. The rescue took place at around 4pm on Sunday 6th April in international waters, in the SAR zone under Maltese and Tunisian jurisdiction, 35 miles south-west of the pelagic island. Mediterranea announced it. ‘At 15.30’, reads a note, ‘the Safira crew had in fact spotted the boat in danger, not previously reported, thanks to observation from the bridge with binoculars, while they had been monitoring the area since dawn. The MEDITERRANEA Rescue Team proceeded to assist the people on board the overcrowded boat, providing everyone with life jackets, and contacted the Maltese authorities requesting a rescue operation. As often happens, they first did not answer the calls and then refused to intervene. At this point our Rescue Team, after the boat's already damaged engine had caught fire, proceeded to evacuate the people, bringing them all safely aboard Safira. Here the two doctors from the medical team gave them first aid, considering that the shipwrecked people had left the Libyan coast of Sabratha 52 hours earlier and were completely exhausted, with serious dehydration problems due to the long time spent at sea. There were 28 people of different nationalities – Sudan, Egypt, Morocco and Bangladesh – including 12 unaccompanied minors, all fleeing Libya. The Italian authorities assigned us to the port of Lampedusa as a safe place for disembarkation, which Safira reached during the night before a new storm hit the central Mediterranean today’.
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