''Life Support'' (ship) is a converted offshore supply vessel operated by the Italian

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

Emergency An emergency is an urgent, unexpected, and usually dangerous situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or environment and requires immediate action. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening ...

for

Search and rescue Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search ...

refugee A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

s and migrants in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

. The ship has been active in this role since December 2022. It has a crew of 28, and can carry up to 175 rescued passengers. On its first mission, it rescued 142 people. The ship sails under the Flag of Panama. It is 51m (52m according to other sources) in length and has a beam of 12m. The ship was formerly called ''Sanco Chaser'', and was built in 2002 for the Norwegian company Sanco. On 4 November 2024, ''Life Support'' disembarked 72 rescued people at the port of

Livorno Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 152,916 residents as of 2025. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn ...

, bringing the total number rescued by ''Life Support'' since December 2022 to 2,293.

References

{{reflist Sea rescue organizations European migrant crisis Immigrant rights activism Humanitarian aid organizations in Europe Refugee aid organizations in Europe