Last week the operational phase of the Sea-Watch project in Lampedusa officially ended.

The Sea-Watch ship found shelter in the port of Djerba -Tunisia, for the winter. The organization will be back to patrol the Sicilian Channel next Spring, with a new boat, better equipped for SAR operations.

The Sea-Watch Team emptied the land base in Lampedusa and left the island. On the last night, as last SW member on site and responsible for the relations with the local authorities, we celebrated the end of the season with members of the Coast Guard, specifically with the crew of the patrol boat CP 320, which this summer rescued around 2000 migrants, same as the Sea-Watch.

The considerable difference in the capacity of the Sea-Watch ship and the Coast Guard’s patrol boats, worth 3.5 millions each, did not prevent the former to achieve a great result during the summer, in what is certainly not a competition but rather an efficient collaboration that the organization wishes to keep for next year.