Sea-Eye 4: 200 people to disembark in Sicily on Christmas Eve

Over 200 people rescued by Sea-Eye 4 will disembark in Sicily on Christmas Eve after Maltese authorities denied entry to the people on board. 

The Sea-Eye 4 was assigned a port of safety in Pozzallo on Thursday afternoon. It will arrive at the port on Friday 24 December at around 7:30am.

The crew aboard the Sea-Eye 4 rescued 223 people in the Maltese search and rescue zone across four rescue operations on 16 and 17 December.

According to Sea-Eye 4, Maltese authorities refused to take over the coordination of these cases. 

During the week, nine people had to be evacuated from the ship by the Italian coast guard for medical reasons. There were four medical evacuations in total.

“We hope that people will be able to go ashore soon and not have to spend the Christmas days on board,” said Gorden Isler, chairman of Sea-Eye. 

Many of the rescued people had to receive medical treatment aboard and will continue to need medical care on land.

A spokesperson for Sea-Eye had told MaltaToday that many of the people aboard were injured, with some children experiencing broken bones.

“We are infinitely relieved that people are finally allowed to go ashore. It is significant that even on Christmas Eve people are brought to safety by sea rescuers. The humanitarian crisis does not make Christmas vacation. We are particularly grateful to the civil society sea rescue alliance United4Rescue, who made this additional rescue mission possible. It saved the lives of another 223 people,” Isler continued.

In total, the Sea-Eye 4 rescued over 1.400 people from distress at sea during four rescue missions in 2021.

Earlier today, the Church in Malta called on national authorities to save and disembark over 200 stranded asylum seekers, and offered to host a number of them in its properties. 

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