Diario di bordo

On the instructions of the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC in Rome), our ship Mare Jonio is now heading towards the port of Pozzallo, after having rescued 67 people yesterday evening who were adrift, at risk of shipwreck, 48 miles off Lampedusa.

These have been difficult days, in which we have seen with our own eyes the violence and death that cross the Mediterranean. We now ask that the refugees we managed to bring to safety, who have been tried by the terrible conditions of detention in Libya and the long stay at sea, can be disembarked without hesitation. We demand the same for the 211 people rescued by Sea Watch.

We call for our ships to be put in a position to sail again as soon as possible, because there is no one left out there now to bring relief, while every day children, women and men drown in silence or are captured by Libyan militiamen and taken back to the horrors they were trying to escape from.
We thank our sea and land crews, who once again allowed us to be where we needed to be and where we must return again.
Every day that a civil society ship would be left stranded on the quayside would be a day when more lives would be in danger of being lost.