Providing psychological support to shipwreck survivors in Italy

MSF teams have provided psychological support to approximately 60 people and will continue to assist in the next few days, as agreed with the Italian authorities. MSF’s staff have spoken to children who have lost their parents and family members. A 12-year-old boy lost his entire family. A 17-year-old child who was hospitalized lost his parents. Another boy told MSF he lost his 6-year-old brother to hypothermia about four hours after the shipwreck.

While most deaths at sea occur along the central Mediterranean route between Libya and Italy—where MSF operates the rescue vessel Geo Barents—MSF teams have recently observed an increase in the number of people making the dangerous crossing from Turkey to southern Italy.

On February 23, the Geo Barents was unfairly detained and fined by the Italian government. Even though this measure targets MSF, those fleeing violence, poverty, and persecution and attempting to seek safety in Europe by crossing the dangerous central Mediterranean, will be the victims. 

“This tragic shipwreck is a painful reminder that restrictive migration policies will not stop desperate people from fleeing,” said Sergio Di Dato, MSF’s project leader. “People will continue to risk their lives, as they often have no other option. The Italian and EU governments must stop criminalizing migration and humanitarian assistance. They must instead focus on providing adequate safe and legal channels to migrate and improved mechanisms to assist and protect people on the move.” 

MSF teams, including psychologists and cultural mediators specifically trained to offer psychological first aid, provide care at disembarkation ports, hotspots, or reception centers in Italy. MSF primarily provides psychological first aid to relatives and friends of the victims of a shipwreck, with the objective to help address their trauma with mental health support. The team also offers basic services to all survivors, including facilitating access to medical treatment, providing information, and referring vulnerable people to the authorities.

In 2022, MSF Italy launched a project in Roccella Jonica, near Crotone, to provide medical and psychological support at disembarkation points, focusing on identifying people with medical vulnerabilities.

MSF has been active and engaged in search and rescue activities since 2015, working on eight different search and rescue vessels (alone or in partnership with other nongovernmental organizations). MSF has assisted in the rescue of more than 85,000 people. Since launching search and rescue operations on board the Geo Barents in May 2021, MSF has rescued 6,194 people (including 3,742 in 2022), recovered the bodies of 11 people who died at sea, and assisted in the delivery of one baby on board.