Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigation – 14th of July 2015

Case name: 2015_07_14-CM33
Situation: More than 300 people in distress in Central Mediterranean Sea, rescued, 1 fatality
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Tuesday the 14th of July, at around 1pm, the Alarm Phone shift team was informed by Nawal Soufi’s activist collective about an emergency situation in the Central Mediterranean Sea. They stated that a vessel had left Egypt 7 days earlier, carrying about 250 people, including women and children. Following their account, the travellers had run out of drinking water and food. The collective passed on the satellite phone number of one of the passengers and the coordinates of the vessel.

Our shift team reached out to the passengers but, at first, without success. We then called the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Rome and they confirmed that a rescue operation was under way.

At around 4pm, we could finally get through to the travellers. They said that they were about 300 people, had left 7 days earlier, and were now without any drinking water. They also stated that there was one dead woman and one dead child on board. We turned to MRCC Rome again and shared the newly obtained information. MRCC Rome, now more inclined to cooperate, asked us further questions about the vessel which we, after communicating again with the travellers, passed on to them.

About one hour later, a member of Nawal’s collective passed on updated GPS coordinates of the vessel, which we then passed on to MRCC Rome. At about 7pm, MRCC Rome informed us that a rescue operation was taken place but were unwilling to comment further on the operation. The passengers then reported to us that they could see a large and a small vessel approaching and we advised them to stay calm and wait for the rescue operation to begin.

After several attempts, the travellers could be reached again at about 9.30pm. They stated that they were transferred in small groups by the small vessel onto the large vessel, with 60-70 people left waiting to be transferred. After this phone conversation, contact to the passengers could not be re-established. A day later, MRCC Rome confirmed to us the rescue of the passengers.

After disembarkation in Augusta, Sicily, on Wednesday, it emerged that a 10 year old diabetic girl from Syria had died during the journey. Following media reports and based on her parents’ accounts, those in charge of the vessel had thrown the girl’s bag overboard which contained her insulin. She fell into a coma and then passed away. Deutsche Welle reports: ‘At the behest of other passengers aboard the crowded vessel, the [father] said he had buried his daughter at sea’ (source 1). Upon arrival, the Italian police arrested three Egyptians thought to be the smugglers.