Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 18th August 2019
Case name: 2019_08_18-CM183
Situation: A fisherman from Tripoli informed us that he had rescued 3 people from the debris of a shipwreck. More that 100 people are feared dead.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Sunday the 18th of August, at 5 pm CEST the Alarm Phone was informed by a fisherman from Tripoli, Libya, that he had rescued 3 people, 2 men and 1 woman, who were found floating in the debris of a shipwreck. The survivors, who were taken back to Tripoli, claimed that they had been travelling with over 100 people on the boat that sank, and that they were the only ones who survived. The fisherman told us that he informed the authorities who sent an ambulance for the survivors. However, he did not know where the surviving travellers were brought to. He also told us there were dead bodies on the site of the shipwreck and that no authority had gone to collect them. In a later conversation with the Alarm Phone the fisherman told us that the survivors were found clinging on to a gasoline tank and that the boat looked like a blue rubber boat. We published three tweets about this case. We informed MSF and UNHCR in Libya about this testimony and asked if they had further information, which they did not. The following day we contacted Libyan authorities to ask whether they had information on the shipwreck and whether they had launched a search operation. They told us that they had no information and it appeared that they had not launched any operation. We also sent Libyan authorities an email enquiring for news, but this email remains unanswered. In a later phone call, the authorities reiterated that they had no news. We fear that this might be another undocumented case of shipwreck in the Central Mediterranean Sea.