The ship MARE JONIO returns to the central Mediterranean accompanied by the sailing boat organised by the Italian Church: the Pope blesses the expedition.

Last night the new monitoring, search and rescue mission of the MEDITERRANEA Saving Humans ship MARE JONIO left the port of Trapani. This is the eighteenth mission since October 2018 for the only ship of the Civil Fleet flying the Italian flag. This is a particularly important mission: for the first time, the MARE JONIO will be accompanied by a support vessel, organised by the MIGRANTES Foundation of the Italian Catholic Church, with a role of observation and documentation, information and witness.

A few hours after the departure, the MEDITERRANEA and MIGRANTES mission received an extraordinary message of "fair wind": Pope Francis wrote to the crews via Father Mattia Ferrari:

‘I wish you all the best and send my blessing to the crews of Mediterranea Saving Humans and Migrantes. I am praying for you. Thank you for your testimony. May the Lord bless you and may the Blessed Mother protect you. Fraternally, Francis'

The ship MARE JONIO and the sailing boat MIGRANTES will reach the SAR operation area south of Lampedusa this afternoon, Saturday 24 August. Despite the silence that seems to have descended on the permanent humanitarian crisis in our sea, the mission is intervening in a dramatic situation: according to data published recently by the IOM (the UN's International Organisation for Migration), from the beginning of this year until 17 August, more than 1,000 people have died or gone missing in the central Mediterranean, while almost 14,000 have been intercepted at sea and returned to the notorious detention centres in Libya. According to the Tunisian authorities themselves, more than 30,000 people left Tunisia and were intercepted by land or sea. Many of them faced deportation or have been adandoned in the desert. The vaunted 'reduction of landings in Italy' has therefore been preceded by an increase in violence and suffering for people on the move and, proportionally, in the number of deaths compared to previous years. This is a direct consequence of the agreements made by the Italian governments and European institutions with militias and regimes in Libya and Tunisia.

In addition to the mission's primary objective, which is to save at all costs every single human life in danger at sea," explains Laura Marmorale, President of MEDITERRANEA Saving Humans, "there is also the objective of preventing the interception and return of migrants to 'unsafe' ports and countries, such as Libya and Tunisia, where fundamental rights are denied and people's safety is threatened on a daily basis. Interceptions and rejections that are open violations of international, humanitarian and maritime law'.

Sailing Trapani / Lampedusa, 24 August 2024, 10:00 a.m.