Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 16th of September 2015

Case name: 2015_09_16-AEG72
Situation: 8 boats in distress in the Aegean Sea, near the Greek islands of Agathonisi, Chios, Lesvos and Samos
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases:: As on the day before, the Alarm Phone was alerted also on Wednesday the 16th of September 2015 to eight groups of travellers in distress in the Aegean Sea. While in four cases the travellers succeeded to reach the Greek islands by themselves, three groups were rescued by Turkish authorities, and to two groups the Alarm Phone provided support after they had stranded on small islands.

At 4.10am the shift team received a WhatsApp message from a contact person, informing us about a group of 37 persons who had stranded on the uninhabited island of Glaros, east of Agathonisi (case 1). Addressing the group directly via WhatsApp, we advised them to call the international emergency number 112 for help and provided them with the phone number of the UNHCR Greece. Shortly afterwards they sent us a voice message, stating that at 112 nobody was able to speak English. They also said that, in the meantime, another group had arrived on the island. At 9am we informed both the UNHCR and the Greek authorities on Agathonisi about the groups in distress and continuously tried to get in touch with the travellers. While these attempts were unsuccessful, the UNHCR assured us that they would take care of the situation.

At 4.46am the same contact person provided us with coordinates of a boat in distress north of Samos, with 43 people on board (case 2). We immediately called the Greek coastguard, but they told us that the travellers would have to contact them directly. We sent a message with the coastguard’s number to the travellers and received two answers, stating that they are currently paddling with their bare hands and struggling with very high waves, unable to submit an emergency call at the same time. After a second call to the Greek coastguard, in which our request was denied again, we finally got a hold of the travellers on their phone and learned that they had safely reached the island of Samos.

At 4.54am we were informed about a vessel with 33 people on board south of Lesvos, the engine of which had broken down (case 3). We provided the travellers with the number of the Greek coastguard and advised them to call 112 in case of distress. Shortly afterwards we received the information that the boat’s engine had started again. In two similar cases in the afternoon and in the following night we were in contact with boats north of Lesvos (cases 4+5). In both cases the travellers had safely arrived on the island of Lesvos on their own.

At 5.25am we received two phone numbers of a rubber vessel with 42 people on board, who had left Turkey at midnight at a position made known to us (case 6). After several failed attempts we got in touch with the panicking travellers at 7.34am. They were in Turkish territorial water and their engine had broken down. They asked us to immediately alert the Turkish authorities. After being cut off by the Izmir port authorities several times, we passed our information on to them at 7.56am. Again, they urged the travellers to directly call the Turkish emergency number 158. In another phone call with the travellers at 8.03am we were told that they had come across another vessel, which wanted to help them but was afraid of risking trouble with the Turkish authorities. We advised them to call the Turkish emergency number. Afterwards, connection to the boat could not be established again, but at 9.18am the Izmir port authorities confirmed the rescue of several boats in this area. Only much later, at 12.35pm we received final confirmation that the boat in question had been amongst them. In a similar case the phone number of travellers in a sinking boat was handed over to us at 10.28am. We called them directly but they had already been rescued by Turkish authorities and had been taken back to Turkey (case 7).

At 10.15am the Alarm Phone was called by a group of Syrian families, 20 adults and 20 children, whose engine had broken down and who had run ashore on an island unknown to them (case 8). They had left Izmir at 6am but did not get far. They provided us with their coordinates and we were able to locate them on an uninhabited island east of Chios, but still on Turkish territory. At 10.50am they called us again. We explained where they had stranded and asked for their permission to alert the Turkish authorities. Although they did not want to go back to Turkey, they agreed. We called the Turkish coastguard who was already aware of this group and promised to take care of the situation. At 12.38pm the group confirmed to us by phone that they had been picked up from the island and had been transferred back to Turkey.