After being stuck on board for days, the crew on #OceanViking is finally disembarking, as the health authorities lift the isolation they had imposed. Time for them to rest and recover from an horrific experience, allowed by European complicity. Our hearts are with them.

4days after the Libyan CG attack, our crew is still stranded onboard due to lengthy and unorthodox health protocols. Their #mentalhealth is impacted: they are in the same site of the traumatic event.Immediate support and disembarkation are urgently needed.

“It is unacceptable that the EU funds and collaborates with extremely violent partners who attack humanitarian workers and survivors, directly threatening their lives.”.Ayla, Deputy SAR Coordinator from the bridge where dozens of bullets were found after the Libyan CG attack.

🚨Yesterday, 87 survivors disembarked safely in #Augusta, mostly people from #Sudan fleeing war and persecution. After all they have been through they had to face the armed attacks of our rescue ship by Libyan Coast Guard. Even our humanitarian ship is no longer a safe place.

🔴 Update: .Following Italian authorities’ request, #OceanViking is heading to Augusta instead of Syracuse to disembark the 87 survivors.

Yesterday, our teams and survivors on the Ocean Viking were deliberately shot at by Libyan Coast Guard, on a vessel gifted by Italy. We demand a full investigation into these horrifying events and an immediate end to all European collaboration with Libya.

Today at 3pm, the #OceanViking has been deliberately and violently attacked in intl. waters by the Libyan Coast Guard, who fired hundreds of shots at our ship. The 87 survivors and crew on board were not wounded. We are currently working on a detailed reconstruction of events.

2/2 Italian authorities assigned Marina di Carrara 1,300 + km away as the Place of Safety. 3,5 long days of navigation. Once again, this distant port pulls us away from the central #Mediterranean, where rescue efforts are desperately needed. This practice costs lives, everyday.

1/2 Last night,the #OceanViking rescued 47 people including 9 unaccompanied minors from a rubber boat in distress in intl. waters off Libya following an alert by @alarm_phone. Most are fleeing the war-torn #Sudan, where over 12 million people are displaced by a brutal conflict.

The Central Mediterranean was the scene of concerning events in the past weeks. The escalation of violence at sea targets both people on the move and humanitarians trying to render assistance among the erratic behaviour of actors who remain unidentified.

A compelling piece by @Reuters that highlights several realities: the dangers of the journey, the incoherence in rescue coordination, the life-saving collaboration among civil NGOs, and the impacts of delayed disembarkation in distant ports, to name a few:.

Yesterday, a little girl’s life has stopped. She was just 6 years old. She had spent 5 days at sea without food or water, trying to reach Lampedusa with her mother. This is unacceptable. How many more children have to die before the EU decides it’s enough?.

📢Today is the #WorldHumanitarianDay. Our @ifrc and @SOSMedIntl crew onboard Ocean Viking, coming from all around the globe, stands together for the life-saving mission we pursue in the Central Mediterranean. Listen to what drives their humanitarian commitment.

2/2 These words are from the Deputy SAR Coordinator, after 7 survivors disembarked in #Ortona this morning. Italian authorities' decision to send our ship 1500 km away from the rescue location, brings our team too far and for too long from the deadly Central Mediterranean sea.

1/2 “It is deeply sad and frustrating to experience coordination that deliberately limits our capacity to save lives, while the past days have been filled with news of people shipwrecked at sea, abandoned, missing, or dead.”

RT @seawatch_intl: Italy unlawfully detained our aircraft Seabird 1 for exposing human rights abuses in the Mediterranean. Without our eyes….

At least 20 ppl have died after two boats capsized off Lampedusa. More than 20 are still missing. While lives are being lost at sea #OceanViking has to navigate for 4 days to disembark 7 ppl in Ortona leaving the Central Med with even less rescue means.

2/2 The survivors are now taken care of onboard by @IFRC and @SOSMedIntl after this traumatic event. They will now have to endure 4 more days at sea before reaching safe ground in Ortona, the distant port that has been assigned to us as a Place of Safety.

1/2 Early this morning in pitch dark, #OceanViking was approached at high speed by an unidentified boat. Seven people went overboard and were rescued by our team. Two of them are unaccompanied minors.

2/2 Yesterday, the 37 survivors disembarked in #Ravenna. On the pier they were warmly welcomed by a group of people with kind messages.