Open Arms rescues 115 people in the central Mediterranean on the Xmas mission
Mission 107 aboard the Open Arms, which set sail from the port of Barcelona on Christmas Eve, concludes with the joy of knowing that the life of 115 people, including several children and pregnant women, is no longer in danger.
Each of the 115 people from countries of origin such as Somalia, Cameroon, Bangladesh, Eritrea, Sudan, Ethiopia, Morocco, Algeria and Syria, among others, who we have rescued, and to whom we have restored dignity on board our old tugboat, will have the opportunity to start a new life in peace, and new opportunities away from the situations of abuse, poverty and conflict from which they were fleeing.
This mission has been enlightened by the smile of Mariam, a girl from Cameroon who undertook a long journey alone to Europe to reunite with her father and mother, and the smiling eyes of Amala, an 18-month-old baby, rescued in high sea in a precarious iron boat in the arms of her mother, Hadiya, a young Malian woman who is 2 months pregnant.
All of this has been possible thanks to the support of people like you, who with your generosity allow us to carry out our work and remain firm with our commitment: not to leave any life adrift.
Currently, the Open Arms is located in the Italian port of Salerno,
preparing to set sail in the coming days on a new mission, Mission 108, in the central Mediterranean.
We remember that in 2023, more than 2,756 people have lost their lives by drowning in the Mediterranean while trying to reach European shores. Without the presence of humanitarian organizations that are at sea, sometimes acting in place of institutions, the human lives lost at the bottom of the sea will be even more.
We continue to denounce the Italian government's strategy of assigning disembarkation ports significantly more distant than those available, unnecessarily prolonging the suffering of those on board. This constitutes a flagrant deliberate breach of the Law of the Sea and International Conventions, which establish that shipwrecked persons must be disembarked in the nearest safe port.
If saving lives is a crime, there is no better time for you to join our gang.
