WOMEN AT SEA
by Laura Salvinelli
"Last year, on March 13, 2024, I happened to find a dinghy by chance, and when we saw it with binoculars it seemed strange, because there were few people on board, and then when we launched our lifeboats and got close, we realized that there were only 25 men left. They had been at sea for a week and had seen some sixty or more of their travelling companions die, including all the women and one and a half year old child". It is just one of the many testimonies of Luisa Albera, head of mission and coordinator of search and rescue of the Ocean Viking of SOS Méditerranée, a network of humanitarian organizations active in France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. "Unfortunately we are continuing to do our work at sea when we should not be there, as this situation should not exist: it is a political problem that we cannot solve, we can only try to save as many people as possible in the absence of a European search and rescue mission. And the situation is getting worse: we are more and more hampered, we have become targets of haters", she adds from her position in the bridge. Luisa, 55 years old, from Turin, a city far from the sea, has "several years of work on her shoulders", first as an IT consultant, then in the navy with experiences with NGOs dealing with environmental protection and finally with SOS Méditerranée "because being Italian the problem of deaths at sea touches me closely". In the Central Mediterranean, in the general indifference, according to the International Organization for Migration, 32.125 people have died or disappeared since 2014, a figure "grossly underestimated", according to the same organization.
We are on board the Ocean Viking to learn about the stories of women working in search and rescue, a world that, like the navy, traditionally excluded them - on ships they were considered bearers of misfortune - before the arrival of NGOs. Why, while the world closes its eyes, these women are in the sea? Justine (to avoid problems we do not divulge surnames apart from that known of Luisa), Breton, 31 years old, member of the crew of one of the three dinghies, has no doubts: "As for this organization, I work there because it is financially independent, and as for the purpose of the mission, because legally there is no debate on the fact that you have to save those who are in danger at sea. And also because in the sea there is a moral law for both migrants and rich people. Here we are at the crossroads between the humanitarian world, which operates in law, and the maritime world, which operates in solidarity". Caterina, 41 years old, originally from Montepulciano and lives in Berlin, is a doctor and head of the medical team. If I could I would save all the people in danger: "No one deserves to be cold and hungry, not knowing how to go to the bathroom, to feel the fear that the boat will capsize or blow a hole, that you are going in the wrong direction, to be taken back to hell where you have already been. I have known people who have tried the crossing 8, 10 times". Françoise, 50, born in Brittany and adopted in Paris, nurse, is at sea to help those who need it. She is not an activist, committed yes, but never an activist. She says: "We are now considered activists on the brink of crime. It is deeply unfair to attack those who try to prevent people from drowning. It is not normal". Morgane is 29 years old and comes from the French hinterland. When she moved to Marseille, she had a great idea: she would become a sailor. Then she discovered the world of search and rescue and understood that not letting people drown is the only right reason to consume fuel and create pollution. Now she is part of the crew of one of the lifeboats and is one of the first to come into contact with the shipwrecked: "On the boat there is a very strong physical contact with them. Sometimes they fall into your arms, entrust their children to you. You can no longer accept the narrative of the media or politics, which denies their humanity". Camille, 33 years old, raised in Belgium by an Italian expat father who was also a mother for her, is personally touched by the theme of migration because she has always felt foreign, both in Belgium and in Italy. She has dedicated her work to defending the rights of migrants and refugees. She is the head of the protection team, which gives reliable information on the rights of people arriving in Italy. The theme of migration has also been fundamental for the growth of Nura. Born 32 years ago in Italy to a Moroccan mother and a Lebanese father, she studied oriental languages to get closer to her parents, traveled for 7 years throughout the Middle East, and from there began her career in the social field. Now she is a cultural facilitator. Shee admits: "You think you are helping migrants because you feel emancipated, and at the end of the fair you discover that they teach you a lot". Rebecca, a 33-year-old Welsh who has moved to Bristol, midwife and head of the medical team for the previous mission, says: "When you come back from a mission you are not the same person who left. Humanitarian work shows you the best and worst of humanity. In search and rescue you discover that people are no longer considered as people, they are reduced to numbers, problems, crises. We are at sea also to listen to their stories, their hopes, their dreams. We see their resilience, how much they have struggled, how much they have helped themselves among strangers. We also see devastating things that eat away at us over time. I remember all the names of the people we lost on board, but to know one we had to wait a year during which I suffered a lot. Eventually we found out and that name was Rahaf. Rahaf was a 7 year old girl who had left with her family. When she was brought on board, she had a cardiac arrest. We managed to get her heart to beat again, but she did not survive the medical evacuation".
Women make up about 15% of the survivors of the world’s deadliest route. They leave their homes and loved ones for the same reasons as men: conflicts, persecution, poverty, famines... to which are added domestic and sexual violence, forced marriages. Sometimes they travel with their children to protect them, to avoid to their girls genital mutilations. Some children were born in the terrible Libyan detention centres. They mostly travel alone, which makes them even more vulnerable, and at very high risk of rape, kidnapping and sexual exploitation. Sub-Saharan women who pass through Libya are all raped. The team of SOS Méditerranée’s first ship, the Aquarius, in 2017 rescued from a barge a woman who had a baby, Christ, still attached to her with the umbilical cord. Camille is deeply affected by the violence they encounter in their countries of origin and on the road, even personally, because she has been a victim of sexual violence, and believes it is right and healthy to talk about it. And she is equally inspired in her work and personal life by their resistance. For Françoise, when she sees them on boats, they are pure vulnerability. But when she listens to them, they are pure hope. Morgane respects them because they are fighters, much stronger than her, and because they made her realize how lucky she is: "I wish they had my freedom, and even more". There is no woman who has not highlighted their resilience.
Just before dawn on 13 June 2025, the Ocean Viking team rescued 70 men, including two unaccompanied minors, all from Bangladesh except one from Egypt, in international waters of the Libyan search and rescue zone. They traveled crammed on a fiberglass boat. "All the migrants' boats are in danger" - says Luisa - because they are overcrowded and lack the proper equipment, lifebuoys, fuel, water and food needed to make the crossing. If they arrive in Lampedusa it is only because they are lucky, the sea was not too agitated, they were not lost, they did not overturn, the Libyan Coast Guard did not shoot at them". In order to comply with the Piantedosi law (n. 15/2023) which obliges ships to go as soon as possible to assigned ports, preventing multiple rescues, and for the practice of assigning distant ports - only to NGO vessels, that have transported in the last two years an average of 11% of migrants landed in Italy - we sailed three days to land 70 shipwrecks at Marina di Carrara, 624 nautical miles, that is almost 1.160 kilometers from the rescue site. The ship has certificates to carry 400 survivors. To reach distant ports in two years the Ocean Viking has traveled 63.207 kilometers, added 171 days of navigation and spent more than 1.332.208 euros in fuel. Above all, it had to prolong the sufferings of the survivors and reduce their average from 278 to 128 per mission.
SOS Méditerranée has rescued 4.561 people since its first mission in 2016. It has three purposes: to save as many lives as possible, to protect them until they arrive in a safe place, and to witness the humanitarian tragedy in the Mediterranean, giving voice to the survivors and paying tribute to the dead while keeping their memory alive.