Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 21 November 2019
Case name: 2019_11_21-CM212
Situation: One boat with 94 people was either intercepted and returned to the dangers of Libya or lost their lives due to the refusal of European authorities to assist them.
Status of WTM Investigation: ???
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

In the early evening of 21 November 2019 our shift team was alerted to a boat in distress with 94 people on board. The rubber boat was losing air and they were in fear for their lives. We contacted the Italian coastguard and NGOs of the civil fleet, providing the GPS position of the boat and requesting urgent assistance. We maintained contact with the boat at regular intervals to ensure we had an up-to-date GPS location and to try to keep them calm. They told us that the rubber tubes around the edge of the boat were broken and they were very scared. Our last conversation with them was at 18.36 CET. In the meantime, two NGO boats, the Open Arms and Aita Mari, moved towards the boat in distress as fast as possible but they were both several hours away. By 22.10h CET both NGO boats were in the area conducting a search. They said it was very windy and they were fearful for the people in the boat. We had made several attempts to contact the so-called Libyan coastguard to find out if the boat had been intercepted but we were unable to get in touch with them. We contacted the Maltese coastguard but they had refused to act using the excuse that the boat was in the disputed Libyan search and rescue zone. We were not able to confirm whether these 94 people (including 13 women, three of whom were pregnant, and children) were intercepted and returned to the dangers of Libya, or whether they lost their lives that night due to the refusal of European authorities to assist.