Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 2nd of November 2019

Case name: 2019_11_02-CM209
Situation: 43 travelers started from Zuwarah, Libya, brought to Italy by Italian supply vessel
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case:

On 2nd of November at 08:56am CET the Alarm Phone was contacted by a relative of a person who had started their journey in Zuwarah, Libya two days ago, in a convoy of around 200 people in three to four boats. He told us about 43 people who had been rescued by a Maltese tug boat during the night. At 09:28am we spoke to the Maltese Coastguard who stated that an Italian tug boat had reported of meeting migrant boats in the Libyan Search and Rescue zone and the case was in Italian responsibility. At 10:26am we called the Italian Coastguard who did not give out any information about the case. When we spoke again to the relative he told us the people had been rescued by the captains of oil company vessels who had then contacted the Italian and Maltese authorities to have the people picked up and brought to Europe, but the authorities had not reacted. So, the travelers stayed on one of the ships close to the spot where they had been rescued because the captain refused to bring them back to Libya for humanitarian reasons. At 11:44am we found out via the Italian ship company, that the rescued people had been transferred to another ship called “Asso Trenta”. At 11:59am we called the Italian Coastguard and told them we were aware of the people on the Italian ship and asked how they would proceed now. They did not give us information. During the afternoon and evening, we regularly called the Italian Coastguard again but still did not receive information about the fate of the people. Meanwhile we received calls from other relatives asking what was happening to their family members but could not help them. During the night and the next morning, we could observe the “Asso Trenta” moving towards Pozzallo, Sicily, on an online map. On 3rd of November around noon the “Asso Trenta” arrived at the port of Pozzallo, Italy, so we considered the rescue as confirmed, but had never received any information about the case from the Italian authorities.