October 4, 2025. On the anniversary of the dramatic shipwreck off Lampedusa 12 years ago, people are still dying while fleeing across the Mediterranean: SOS Humanity rescued 41 people in distress at sea yesterday, but survivors report that seven people have already gone overboard. During the night, two more people died on board the Humanity 1. Most of those rescued are war refugees from Sudan.

After a difficult rescue on Friday afternoon southeast of Lampedusa and a dramatic night during which two survivors died, the crew of the rescue ship Humanity 1 is now allowed to head for Porto Empedocle as a place of safety. Italian authorities had initially assigned them to Bari in northern Italy, 1,000 kilometres away, to bring the remaining 34 survivors ashore. Given the bad weather and the critical medical situation on board, and the people rescued from distress at sea being very weak, including several minors, the assignment of a distant port in northern Italy was not only a violation of maritime law, but also inhumane.

On the afternoon of October 3, 2025, the crew of the search and rescue organisation SOS Humanity discovered an overcrowded, unseaworthy, and unmaneuverable grey rubber boat in the immediate vicinity of the rescue ship Humanity 1. It was located in the Maltese rescue zone southeast of the Italian island of Lampedusa.

The people on board had already been at sea for at least four days without rescue equipment or sufficient supplies. Survivors report that at least seven people fell overboard from the inflatable rubber boat and drowned.

When Humanity 1 found the boat, the weather conditions were hazardous, with waves up to 3 meters high and strong winds, making it a particularly challenging task for the crew to conduct the rescue operation. The crew of Humanity 1 brought a total of 41 people on board Humanity 1. Several people were unconscious when they were taken on board, many could barely stand or walk, and all were dehydrated, hypothermic, and extremely exhausted. A mother and child suffered severe burns caused by gasoline-saltwater mixtures in the rubber boat.

Emergency measures marked the evening and night. One person had to be resuscitated after the rescue but died during the night. Attempts to evacuate people by helicopter were unsuccessful due to the severe weather conditions. Another person collapsed on board and, despite emergency medical measures, could not be saved. It was only on the third attempt in the early hours of the morning that five people, including the mother and child, were finally evacuated by the Italian coast guard directly off Lampedusa.

Nevertheless, the Italian authorities did not allow the 34 survivors remaining on board the Humanity 1 to disembark in Lampedusa in accordance with international maritime law. Only after several requests from the crew of the Humanity 1 was the distant port of Bari changed to Porto Empedocle in Sicily.

Yesterday, twelve years ago, a major shipwreck occurred off Lampedusa in which hundreds of people fleeing across the Mediterranean died. The photos of long rows of coffins caused widespread outrage at the time. Politicians travelled to Lampedusa, and the EU promised to remedy the situation. Today, an average of three people still die every day on the central Mediterranean escape route, and there is no European-coordinated sea rescue program, even though search and rescue is a state obligation under international law. Instead, civil organisations such as SOS Humanity are the only actors in the biggest part of the central Mediterranean who carry out search and rescue activities in accordance with international law and attempt to close the dramatic rescue gap off the European coast.