Mediterranea: 'We fear the sinking of three other boats from Tunisia. We ask the Italian authorities for a major search operation'.

MEDITERRANEA Saving Humans gladly shares and disseminates the communiqué of Compass Collective, the German organisation that has been running the sailing boat TROTAMAR III, engaged in missions south of Lampedusa, since August 2023.

Together with the news of the rescue carried out by them, however, we are obliged to report that at least three other shipwrecks may have occurred in recent days along the route between the Tunisian coast and Lampedusa: since 2nd December, in fact, ALARM PHONE first reported the disappearance of two boats that had respectively left Tunisia on 27th November with 45 people on board and on 30th November with 75 people on board; then on 4th December it reported a further boat with another 45 people on board that had been missing since 30th November. Alarm Phone immediately communicated all the information in its possession to the competent maritime authorities in the area, i.e. the rescue coordination centres in Tunisia, Malta and Italy, but no response was received from them.

"Along the route from Tunisia to Lampedusa, a real storm has raged in recent days," says Luca Casarini of MEDITERRANEA, "for this reason we ask that the Italian authorities, together with the Maltese and Tunisians, immediately launch a wide-ranging search operation to track down possible survivors. Lives in danger at sea cannot be abandoned in any way."

Lampedusa/Trapani 11.12.2024

COMPASS COLLECTIVE
Mediterranean: sailing boat rescues sole survivor of shipwreck

Last night, off the coast of Lampedusa, the crew of the sailing boat TROTAMAR III rescued a survivor of a boat that sank three days ago from Sfax, Tunisia. She was probably the only one of the 45 people on board to have survived the storm in the central Mediterranean, which lasted several days. The storm of the last few days also prevented several NGO boats from setting sail, so it was not possible to rescue this metal boat. The 11-year-old girl, originally from Sierra Leone, floated in the water for three days with two improvised life jackets made of tyre tubes filled with air and a simple life jacket. She claimed to have been in contact with two other people in the water two days ago. But the contact had been broken. She had no drinking water or food with her and was hypothermic, but responsive and oriented. Only by chance, at 3.20 a.m., did the crew hear the calls in the darkness and immediately initiated a rescue manoeuvre. 

On board the TROTAMAR III, the crew took care of the girl and handed her over to the Lampedusa rescue service at 6am. Skipper Matthias Wiedenlübbert: "It was an incredible coincidence that we heard the girl's voice even though the engine was running. And, of course, we were still looking for other people. But after a storm that lasted for days, with over 23 knots and waves 2.5 metres high, there was no hope."

The TROTAMAR III is a German-flagged sailing boat that has been supporting civilian rescue at sea in the Mediterranean since August 2023. These days it is travelling south of Lampedusa to help people in distress at sea. By midnight that evening, the crew had spotted a wooden boat without a motor, carrying 53 people, distributed life jackets and informed the Italian authorities. On other missions, up to 64 people were rescued directly on the TROTAMAR. Katja Tempel of CompassCollective comments: "Even in stormy weather, people are forced to take risky escape routes across the Mediterranean. We need safe passages for refugees and an open Europe that welcomes people and gives them easy access to the asylum system. Drowning in the Mediterranean is not an option. Drowning in the Mediterranean is not an option".

Since the beginning of its operations in August 2023, the 13-metre-long boat has assisted a total of 1,653 people in distress at sea and organised their rescue by alerting the Italian Rescue Coordination Centre in Rome (IT MRCC), while 231 people were directly rescued by TROTAMAR III.

 The Compass Collective with the sailing boat TROTAMAR III comes from Wendland, a region in Lower Saxony that has been characterised by conflict over nuclear energy production for 40 years. Civil society protests were able to prevent the construction of a nuclear waste repository in Gorleben and are now providing the impetus to stand in solidarity against the push-backs and deaths in the Mediterranean Sea.

Lampedusa/ Wendland, 11.12.2024