Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 1st of April 2019
Case name: 2019_04_01-CM153
Situation: 50 people from Zuwarah in distress
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On April 1, 2019, the Alarm Phone received a distress call at 10pm CEST from a boat carrying about 50 people (including 3 children and 2 women). They had left about three hours earlier in bad weather conditions. They were clearly very anxious and asked for help, also in a second emergency call a few minutes later. The shift team uploaded credit to their satellite phone to ensure they could continue reaching out. However, we could not re-connect with them to gather important information on their situation. The fate of these 50 people is still unknown.

After many unsuccessful attempts to inform the Libyan Coast Guard during the course of the night, which European authorities had instructed the Alarm Phone to do in similar cases over the recent past, we also alerted these European authorities. We informed MRCC Rome at 5.10am on April 2. However, MRCC Rome remained unresponsive and did not confirm whether they would undertake any search and rescue efforts. They even denied to confirm whether they had been able to reach the so-called Libyan coastguards in Tripoli. And thus it was wholly unclear whether any efforts were undertaken to rescue the 50 people in distress.

Only the NGO vessel Alan Kurdi of Sea-Eye redirected its course to look for the boat in distress. After several hours, they reached the area where the boat had been localised. Despite searching the entire night, the boat was not found and contact to the migrant travellers could not be re-established.

Given this rather desperate situation, the Alarm Phone decided to publicly appeal to European authorities to engage in this case.

At 9.40am, we tweeted: “Where are they? About 50 people, including men, women and children, on a boat off #Libya called the Alarm Phone yesterday, at approx. 10pm CEST. We got info from them, incl. their GPS position. Communication with them was difficult, and was re-established only once, at 10.02pm.”

At 9.46, we tweeted: “Since last night, we tried to reach the so-called #Libyan coastguards tirelessly on several phone numbers. When we informed #MRCC Rome about the unavailability of the Libyan authorities, a number was passed on which we had already tried several times, without reaching anyone!”

At 9.50, we tweeted: “The satellite phone of the #migrant group is not being picked up for about 12 hours now. We are very worried & no authority seems willing to rescue. Italian @guardiacostiera is not giving us any info on this distress case, not even if they have reached the Libyan authorities.”

At 12.35pm, Sea-Eye tweeted: “The @alarm_phone informed the #AlanKurdi about a #sea-emergency. The responsible control centres were also informed. Help was offered. Answers are pending. Our ship is now running a search pattern, hoping to find the people.”

At 6.14pm, the Alarm Phone tweeted: “Italy's @guardiacostiera issued a press release referring to our case and stating that so-called #Libyan CG have been informed. Still no confirmation of a SAR operation! No contact to boat now for 20 hours!”
At 6.20pm, MRCC Rome confirmed to us that the so-called Libyan coastguards had been informed by them in the morning. At 7.48pm, MRCC still had no new information for us.

At 9.11pm, the Alarm Phone tweeted: “At 20.50h we finally reached the #Libyan authorities who spoke only Arabic. They refused to both take and give out any information on #distress situations. We still have no idea about the whereabouts of the 50 ppl.”

At 9.51pm, the Alarm Phone tweeted: “24h have passed since the last time we heard from the 50 ppl in distress. We don't know where they are, how they are, if they are still alive. Authorities are not cooperating. This is why the #Med is a graveyard.”

Throughout the evening and night, contact to the boat could not be re-established. On April 3, we tweeted at 1.08pm: “We tried to reach the so-called Libyan CG again & again last night & this morning. Last contact to the people in distress was over 38 hours ago. With no authority cooperating, there is nothing else we can do. We hope they survived. #FortressEurope #borderskill #FreedomOfMovement.”

The boat was never found. Authorities rejected responsibility and allowed for another boat being ‘left-to-die’, yet another example of the deadly deterrence strategies of the EU border regime.