Richard Gere Opens Up About Mission To Aid Refugee Rescue Boat Blocked Entry To Italy: ‘It Was Mind-Boggling’

etcanada.com:

Richard Gere will soon be testifying in Italian court against far-right leader Matteo Salvini, who is on trial for attempting to block 147 people aboard the NGO rescue boat Open Arms from landing in the country.

In an interview with The Guardian, the actor opened up about his upcoming testimony, and his experience aboard the Open Arms in 2019, witnessing the conditions faced by the refugees aboard. “We saw more than a hundred people on board,” Gere said. “I felt ashamed that we have so much and are not able to embrace these fellow human beings, our brothers and sisters who were starving, traumatised.

If they were told the boat was going back to Libya, they would jump in the water and drown themselves, and I felt it was our responsibility to