Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 13th of October 2015‬‬

Case name: 2015_10_13-AEG98
Situation: 9 distress calls in the Aegean Sea, near the Greek islands of Samos, Lesvos and Chios
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Tuesday the 13th of October 2015, the Alarm Phone was alerted to nine distress cases in the Aegean Sea, close to the Greek islands of Samos, Lesvos and Chios. Two of the boats had been attacked near Chios by masked men, who broke the engine and left them behind without fuel, a third group had stranded on a small Turkish island and reported as well to have been attacked the night before.

At 1:05am, we received a 1st alert about a distress case near Chios. The contact person told us that the boat in question had been attacked by a group of six or seven persons, wearing black masks. They had shot at the boat, had broken the engine and had left them behind without fuel. The shift team immediately informed the Greek coastguard about the incident, who promised to send a boat. At 3:20am we called the coastguard again, as no help had arrived. We were told that they had no boats available until 6am and that it was not urgent, as the water was very calm. Moreover, they claimed that the boat was not in Greek, but in Turkish waters, we kept sending them updated positions of the boat, which was moving slowly towards Chios and pressed them to send a boat. At 5:18am the travellers said that water was coming into the boat and that they were terribly exhausted. Throughout the next hours, we held contact with the boat and continuously pressured the Greek coastguard to send a boat to rescue, but we were told that they were dealing with about 15 cases in the area. At 8:30am we finally received a WhatsApp message from the travellers, saying that they had been rescued and that they had safely arrived on Chios.

At 1:47am we received the 2nd alert, which also concerned a boat that had been attacked near Chios. We had direct contact with the travellers, (37 persons, including women and children) who told us that they had been attacked by a group of five men and that the offenders had shouted something like "you are bullshit from Syria". Luckily, none of the travellers was injured and they were relatively calm. They saw several big ships around them, but none came towards them. Throughout the following three hours, we stayed in touch with the travellers, who were still moving into the direction of Chios. About 5am they asked us to call the coastguards, as they were starting to panic. Shortly after 5am, we called the Greek coastguard, who told us to call the Turkish coastguard, as the boat was in Turkish waters according to their map (not to ours). The travellers agreed that we call the Turkish coastguard, so we did. Throughout the whole morning, we then tried to get back to the travellers, but could not reach them anymore. Only at 1.30pm we reached them and learned that they had been rescued to Turkey.

In the course of the morning, we were alerted to three other distress cases in the Aegean, but were not involved in their rescue. The 3rd case concerned two boats carrying about 45 persons again near Chios. We could not get into direct contact with the travellers and had no further information about their situation. At 8:13am we received a WhatsApp message that they had managed to reach Chios by themselves. In the 4th case of a boat carrying 47 persons close to Samos, we also could not get in touch with the travellers and had no further information, but again we got the information that the travellers had reached land by themselves. At 8:30am we received the 5th alarm of the day from a boat with 35 persons on board near Izmir, Turkey. When our Turkish translator called them back at 9.15am, the travellers said that the Turkish coastguard had come to rescue them.

A 6th distress call reached us at 9:18am. The contact group "United Rescue" informed us about a boat carrying 48 persons in Turkish waters with no fuel and little battery left. The United rescue group had already called the Turkish coastguard, but the latter had denied rescue, saying that the Greek coastguard was responsible - even though the boat was just off the Turkish coast. When we called them at 10am, the Turkish coastguard told us that they had already rescued three boats in the same area, the last one with 50 persons on board. However, we could not be sure that it was the boat we were looking for. The Turkish coastguard promised to continue the search and rescue operation in the area. At 12.35pm we reached the travellers who confirmed their rescue to Turkey.

At 10:48am, the shift team received the 7th distress call of the day concerning a boat in distress in the Aegean. The contact person told us about a boat in distress near Samos, carrying 40 passengers, including women, children and ill persons. We contacted the Greek coastguard, but learned that they had already rescued the boat. We passed on the good news to our contact person.

At about 2pm, we were alerted to an 8th distress case of travellers, who had stranded on a small Turkish island between Chios, Greece and Çeşme, Turkey the day before. Our contact person had already informed the Turkish coastguard. We reached out to the stranded travellers, who told us that they were about 40 persons with 20 children and that they had been attacked when they tried to reach Greece the night before. Since they had been on the island without food and water, waiting for rescue, At around 3pm the travellers told us that the coastguard was coming towards the island. However, one hour later we found out that the rescue operation apparently had not gone through. We called the Turkish coastguard, who explained that they were not able to land or transport people due to bad weather conditions. During the following hours, we were in contact with several solidarity groups who were informed about the case. At 9.30pm one contact person sent us a WhatsApp message saying that the coastguard had finally started the rescue operation. Another solidarity group confirmed the next day that the travellers had been rescued and brought back to Turkey.

At 6:43pm we received a 9th alert about a distress case in the Aegean Sea. The contact person told us about a boat carrying 40 persons close to Lesvos and in urgent danger of capsizing. We passed the number and the coordinates to the Greek coastguard. At 8:45pm, the Greek coastguard told us that they had searched the area but had not found any boat. We thus tried to get back to the contact person, as the number he gave us did not belong to the travellers, but to another person, who was not on the boat himself. On Tuesday night we did not manage to reach the contact person. Only the next day, we finally reached him and he told us that the travellers had safely arrived in Greece the night before.