Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 22nd of October 2015

Case name: 2015_10_22-AEG107
Situation: Alarm Phone working on 4 distress cases in the Aegean Sea
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Thursday the 22nd of October 2015, the Alarm Phone was alerted to 4 distress situations in the Aegean Sea.

The first case reached us at around 1am when we were informed about 250 people who had stranded on the small Greek military island of Farmakonisi (case 1). We then received the GPS position of the group. After trying to obtain and verify information about the size of the group, our contact person alerted the Greek coastguards to the group. The Greek authorities had no knowledge of the case and confirmed that they would take action. Our contact person then also informed the group that authorities were notified. At 9.12am we received a WhatsApp message that stated that help had arrived. However, at about 1.58pm we received a call from the group. They were angry and said that about 85 people, including many children, were still on the island. In the afternoon, the Greek coastguards said that the weather was too bad to approach the island and transfer the group - they would pick them up on the next day. Our contact person then informed the group on the island.

At 2.23am we were informed by the Syrian activist collective about a vessel carrying 40 people near Samos Island (case 2). When we could not reach the travellers directly we informed the Greek coastguards who stated that they already knew about this vessel. At 3.24am our informant told us that the group had reached the island independently and were safe.

Shortly afterwards, at 2.48am, we learned about 29 people, including 11 men, 13 women and 5 children who had stranded on a small Greek island (case 3). With the obtained coordinates we were able to locate them on the Greek island of Ro. We then reached out to the Greek coastguards who knew already of the situation and confirmed that they had notified the responsible port authority. For several hours no information could be obtained until 1.13pm when the travellers told us via WhatsApp that they had been rescued.

At 10.04am an Iraqi woman informed us about a group of 40 people on a vessel near Lesvos Island but still in Turkish waters (case 4). We could not reach the group directly but our informant had direct contact. She told us that they had already called the international emergency number 112 as well as the Turkish coastguards. At 11.39am the Turkish coastguards stated that an operation had been launched. However, at 1.42pm the Turkish coastguard informed us that they had not found the vessel in the stated location. Our contact person promised to let us know about the fate of the vessel but so far we were unable to find out whether or not they reached Lesvos Island.