Countries: Libya, World Source: Emergency - Life Support for Civilian War Victims On Monday 21 July, EMERGENCY’s search and rescue ship Life Support completed two separate rescue operations in the central Mediterranean, in the international waters of the Libyan SAR area. In total, 71 people have been brought to safety.The first distress case was an overcrowded dinghy that lacked life jackets and smelled strongly of petrol, spotted around 10:30am directly from Life Support’s bridge. The Life Support team rescued 50 people, including two women, one of whom is nine months pregnant, and 11 unaccompanied minors. Their countries of origin include Egypt, Eritrea and Sudan.“As soon as we spotted the boat in distress, which was clearly in a precarious condition, we put our rescue equipment in the water and approached,” explains Jonathan Naní La Terra, Life Support**‘s Head of Mission.** “Once we reached the vessel in distress, our search and rescue team distributed life jackets and then brought all the people on board Life Support to safety. During the rescue, a vessel from the so-called Libyan Coast Guard approached, but did not interfere in the operations.”The second distress case was a small fibreglass boat unsuitable for crossing the Mediterranean, also spotted directly from Life Support’s bridge, shortly before 7:00 p.m.“As we were preparing to reach the position of a second boat in distress, we saw two vessels approaching our ship and realised that one of them was overloaded with people without life jackets who were calling for help,” Naní La Terra continues. “We therefore launched our rescue boat (RHIB) and approached the distress case. Our rescue team assessed the situation and distributed life jackets, then transferred the people on board our vessel and brought them to safety on Life Support*. We are now sailing towards Ancona, the POS (Place of Safety) assigned to us by the Italian authorities, where we should arrive on 26 July at around 1:00 pm.”*The 21 rescued people, including four unaccompanied minors, come from Bangladesh, Egypt, Eritrea, Myanmar and Somalia. Three people who were on board the fibreglass boat in distress refused to be rescued and, once Life Support’s operation was over, left with an additional vessel that had approached but did not interfere with operations.In total, among the 71 survivors on board Life Support are two women, one of whom is nine months pregnant, and 15 unaccompanied minors.“We currently have 71 people on board, including unaccompanied minors and a woman in her 36th week of pregnancy. Everyone is very exhausted from the journey but fortunately no one is in a critical condition at the moment,” said Serena Buzzetti, Medical Team Leader on board Life Support. “Prolonging the stay of the rescued people on board Life Support*, as is the case with such a distant port assigned to us for disembarkation, means causing them further stress and discomfort. Instead, the rescued people, especially the woman in her ninth month of pregnancy, should be brought ashore as soon as possible so that they can receive all the care they need.”*After completing the rescue and informing the relevant authorities, Ancona was confirmed as Life Support’s Place of Safety for disembarkation: more than 800 miles from the place of rescue. EMERGENCY reiterates that forcing rescued people to spend additional days at sea before being able to disembark in a safe port means increasing their suffering and postponing their access to social and health services, as well as asylum procedures. All those rescued at sea, by nature of having been rescued and given their difficult past experiences, are vulnerable and must therefore be disembarked in a safe place as soon as possible.Life Support, with a team of crew, doctors, nurses, cultural mediators and rescuers, is on its 34th mission in the central Mediterranean. Since December 2022, Life Support has rescued a total of 2,854 people.