Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations - 12th of August 2015

Case name: 2015_08_12-AEG39
Situation: Three vessels in distress in the Aegean Sea, one rescued
Status of WTM Investigations: One case concluded, two unconfirmed
Place of Incidents: Aegean Sea

Summary of the case: On Wednesday the 12th of August 2015, at approximately 4.10am, the Alarm Phone received a call from a vessel in distress near the Greek island of Kos. They were a group of 10 adults and one child and water was entering their vessel. While they could not forward us their GPS position they said that they were close to the island already, maybe only 1 kilometer away. We then reached out to the port authorities in Kos which told us that the group should call the international emergency number 112. We then passed this advice on to the travellers who, calling us back immediately, stated that 112 did not work. We then called the coastguards again and passed on the obtained mobile phone number of one of the passengers. At approximately 5.10am, the group stated that they were now very close to the island, maybe 100 meters away, with a coastguard vessel approaching them. They said they were safe now.

While dealing with the first emergency situation, a second distress call came in. At about 4.45am, we were contacted by someone who knew of a vessel with Syrian refugees on board between Turkey and Greece. While he was unable to provide us with more details he passed on a mobile phone number which, however could not be reached. We tried to contact them for several hours but were never able to get through to them.

In the afternoon we were informed by Nawal Soufi’s activist collective about another distress situation in the Aegean Sea. They told us about 45 people who were on a vessel with a malfunctioning engine, in urgent need to be rescued. With the obtained phone number we tried several times to reach the group, but were unable to get through to them. The Greek coastguards suggested that the travellers should call 112 and, after suggesting that we could not get hold of them, merely stated that they could not help us. At approximately 20.28pm, the Turkish coastguards informed us that they had conducted several rescue operations in this area of the Aegean Sea, in which they rescued about 200 people. When asked about the number of travellers on these vessels, they listed 4 groups with 41-52 people. While no ultimate confirmation about the fate of the vessel in question could be obtained, it seems likely that it was amongst those rescued by Turkey.