Non restare a guardare
2024 | Report
Non restare a guardare: un anno di soccorsi in mare della Life Support
In December 2022, Life Support set sail on its first mission.
The report “Non restare a guardare: un anno di soccorsi in mare della Life Support” tells the story of the first year of our ship’s search and rescue missions: the outcomes, the difficulties and obstacles encountered by the shipwrecked people and our team in the central Mediterranean, the political and humanitarian context, and the approach to migration across Italy and Europe.
Through survivors’ testimonies and moments from our own search and rescue (SAR) operations, we show what it means to save lives at sea and why it is an overriding duty. An obligation enshrined in international maritime law and multiple SAR Conventions, but one that is not on the European political agenda.
Progressive institutional disengagement following the conclusion of the Italian government-led search and rescue operation Mare Nostrum in 2014 has clashed with the urgency of guaranteeing assistance to those in distress on the deadly crossing of the central Mediterranean.
