Sheikh Talal Al-Khaled Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah , the Chief Executive Officer of Kuwait Oil Tankers Company, has announced that the operation of rescuing refugees at the Mediterranean Sea has been completed by the grace of Allah. The efforts made by the State of Kuwait, represented in Kuwait Oil Tankers Company, can be summarized in helping rescuing the innocent lives of the refugees at sea after “ Al Salmi” tanker has received a distress call form the Italian coast guards to rescue the refugees as instructions were given to the tanker to immediately respond to the same and to head to the boat and rescue all the refugees on board.
Around 536 persons including women , men and children were rescued while one person , suffering from diabetes, has died after all endeavors of rescuing him were in vain due to his long stay without any food, water or medicine. Thus , the actual number of the rescued refugees is (537) as the crew of “ Al Salmi” tanker has provided them with all the due care including food, water ,shelter and the required medical care. The refugees were landed safely at Augusta Port in Italy.
It is worth mentioning that on 15/6/2014 , and while the huge oil products tanker “ Al Salmi” was heading towards Italy for delivering its cargo of the Kuwaiti crude oil to KOTC’s customers in Europe, the huge tanker has received a distress call from the Italian coast guards asking for help and to head towards rescuing the lives of refugees on a boat that faces danger at the Mediterranean sea and to transport them to one of the Italian ports as the number of the refugees on the boat was not known.
Responding to the distress call, the tanker headed towards the rescue site and the rescue boats of the tanker were unloaded and sent to the refugees boat. The rescue boats have made several rescuing endeavors that reached 14 endeavor to transport the refugees to the tanker. The operation of rescuing and transporting the refugees took around 12 hours with the participation of all the crew of the tanker under the leadership of the Captain. The Emergency and Disasters Operation Center of KOTC was alerted to timely follow up the situation till its end and rescuing all the refugees.
The tanker has reached Augusta Port in Italy at 17:36 Pm on 16th of June 2014 where all refugees were landed after finalizing the internationally adopted procedures with the officers of the port along with conducting the medical check for all the refugees and after completion of the investigations made by the Italian official authorities on the accident; the matter that took around 6 hours.
After conducting a complete check on the tanker , which is a routine and necessary procedure, “ Al Salmi” tanker has left Augusta Port in Italy in the early hours of today corresponding to 17th of June 2014 continuing its original trip.
Kuwait Oil Tankers Company deeply appreciates all the efforts made by the crew of the tanker and the excellent coordination with the concerned departments in the company ; the matter that we are proud of particularly adhering to the security and safety of lives at sea.
This accident reflects KOTC’s commitment towards the international maritime standards and laws pertaining rescuing of lives at sea and it also reflects the State of Kuwait’s, represented in all its authorities and institutions, obligation towards all humanitarian situations which is one of the characteristics of the civilized Kuwait.