Sea-Eye rescues 231 in Mediterranean in five operations

The migrant rescue mission Sea-Eye carried out five rescues over the course of 24 hours in the Mediterranean sea, with survivors including one mother and her baby, and a woman who is nine months’ pregnant.

“Five rescues in 24 hours – that shows the state of emergency in the Mediterranean at the moment, and how important it is that we are there to save lives,” said Sea-Eye chairman Gorden Isler.

“But by sending civilian rescue ships to distant ports we have to calculate six days for the journey to and from Genoa alone. We are losing valuable time in the search and rescue zone, during which we cannot help people in need. This policy can have fatal consequences for people seeking protection.”

Following instructions from the Italian authorities, the Sea-Eye 4 handed over the people rescued during the last operation to the Italian coast guard. The vessel is now on its way to the port of Genoa, about 600 nautical miles away, where it is expected to arrive on 11 July.

The recues occurred on Sunday, 7 July, when the Sea-Eye 4 crew responded to a distress call provided by Alarmphone and evacuated 46 people from a rubber boat in distress. A few hours later, the vessel received another Alarmphone message. The Resqsip sailing vessel Nadir was first on the scene, stabilising the unseaworthy rubber boat, which was losing air and partially filled with water, and distributed life jackets to 22 people, including a mother and her baby.

By the time Sea-Eye 4 arrived at around 7pm, it picked up all 60 survivors. At 2am on Monday 8 July, the rescue vessel reached a fiberglass boat and rescued another 10 people. On Monday morning, the crew, together with the crew of the Nadir, brought a total of 58 people to safety on board of the Sea-Eye 4 from an overcrowded wooden boat that had already taken on water. The operation was completed at 7am. Shortly after noon, the vessel found another rubber boat in distress and rescued 57 people, including a heavily pregnant woman.

“We had a pregnant woman on board who needed urgent medical attention. Many of those rescued have spent days in the Mediterranean and are weakened and severely dehydrated. Some are suffering from fuel burns, chemical burns that occur when gasoline mixes with seawater and then comes into contact with human skin,” Sea-Eye 4’s on-board doctor Ayesha Sattar, for the NGO German Doctors e.V., said.