Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 15th of October 2015

Case name: 2015_10_15-AEG100
Situation: 10 distress calls in the Aegean Sea, near the Greek islands of Kastellorizo, Agathonisi, Levitha, Chios and Samos
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Thursday the 15th of October 2015, the Alarm Phone was alerted to ten distress cases in the Aegean Sea, close to the Greek islands of Kastellorizo, Agathonisi, Levitha, Chios and Samos.
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Shortly after midnight, the Alarm Phone received a 1st distress call on Viber about a group of at least seven travellers, who had stranded on Kastellerizo, a small from their feeling uninhabited Greek island. The contact person told us that three of the travellers were injured due to a harsh landing on rocks. The Greek coastguard was already informed. We found that the island was not uninhabited and that the stranded travellers were not too far from a road. We reached out to the group via the contact person and told them to try to reach the street. However, they were too exhausted to walk and had lost most of their things in the sea. We contacted the local port authorities about the case. At 9am the port authorities confirmed that they had found some persons, some of whom were injured in the position we had given them. Some hours later, the travellers themselves also confirmed that they were safe via WhatsApp.

At 1:20am the shift team received a message about a 2nd distress case in the Aegean Sea of a boat carrying 45 travellers with 10 babies and heading toward Nera island (north of Agathonisi) was in distress, as water entered the boat. The travellers were in panic. However, the Greek coastguard, whom we alerted immediately, told us that they had a patrol boat nearby. The next day, the travellers confirmed that they had been rescued to Greece.

A few minutes after the second we received a 3rd alert about another boat north of Agathonisi. We did not manage to get into direct contact with the travellers, but we informed the Greek coastguard about the case. At 2am The Greek coastguard told us that their patrol boat had not encountered the second boat, however the next day the travellers sent us a WhatsApp message saying that they had been rescued by the Greek coastguard.

The 4th distress case reached us at 6am via a Syrian solidarity group. The contact person said that a boat with 40 passengers, near Chios was in danger of capsizing. We could not reach the travellers ourselves, but informed the Greek coastguard. At 8am the travellers were still not reachable and the Greek coastguard told us to get in touch with the Port Authorities of Chios to get information about the case. The port authorities confirmed that they had rescued a boat with around 40 people in the position of the boat in question. To get a final confirmation, we attempted several times to reach the travellers, but without success.

The 5th and the 6th distress cases also concern boats near Chios. The 5th alert reached us at 7:30am by WhatsApp. A boat carrying 45 persons was in danger of capsizing. We could not reach them, but informed the Greek coastguard about the case. At 10:30 their rescue was confirmed to us by the person who had first contacted us about the case. A contact person from Germany informed us about the 6th case of a boat in distress south of Chios, carrying about 40 persons. This time, we manage to talk to the travellers directly, who told us that they had run out of fuel and that they had a person on board who was in need of medical treatment. We informed the Greek coastguard. At 4pm the contact person confirmed that the Greek coastguard had rescued the travellers.

On Thursday afternoon, around 4pm two different contact person informed us about a 7th distress case in the Aegean Sea. A boat in Turkish waters seemed to be in urgent distress, as their engine had stopped and water was coming in. We called the travellers to ask hem about their condition and whether they wanted us to inform the Turkish coastguard, but we could not reach them. At 4.20pm one of the contact persons called us back to ask us to call the Turkish coastguard. She had informed them already but felt that she was not taken seriously. We thus called the Turkish coastguard and they promised us to search for the boat in distress. We agreed to call back in one hour. Until 8pm however we reached neither the coastguard nor the boat. Only at 8pm we finally talked to the Turkish coastguard and they only said that they had not encountered the boat. The contact person on the other hand told us that the boat had been saved by the Turkish coastguard.

At 5:45am, Nawal Soufi's activist collective informed us about a group of travellers stranded on Samos without water and food. The authorities were informed, but had not reacted so far. We immediately contacted the port authorities of Samos and forwarded them the coordinates of the group. They told us that the local police had found a group of 12 persons in the same area and that they had been brought to the police station. However, another contact person who also wanted to inform us about the case and who was in touch with the group, told us that the group who had been found must have been a different one, as they were not 12 but approximately 7 persons. He also told us that one of their 4 children, a 5 months old baby, had died. Fortunately it later turned out that the child was not dead, but had only lost consciousness. We forwarded this information to the port authorities and they sent a patrol boat to look for the group. To the contact persons we passed on the information from the authorities that the group should look out for a patrol boat and shout to get the attention of the patrol boat. At 8pm we got the information that the travellers saw the patrol boat, which we passed on to the authorities. A few minutes later, one of the contact persons confirmed that the group had been found. However, two hours later the rescue operation had still not started. The authorities told us that the access to the spot was difficult and that they could hear the group but had not found them. The contact person interpreted the situation differently and explained that the group had even talked to the authorities.

Parallel to the Samos case, we worked on a 9th distress case of a group of about 65 travellers, who had stranded on the island of Levitha in the afternoon. The contact person called us at 6pm and has last been in touch with the group around 3pm. The contact person did not provide us with a contact number. We called the Greek coastguard who promised to send a local group to look for the travellers. At 8.40pm the Geek coastguard confirmed that the group had been found and brought to Leros.