Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 30th of November 2015

Case name: 2015_11_30-AEG143
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 8 distress cases in the Aegean Sea
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Monday the 30th of November 2015, the Alarm Phone was alerted to 8 cases of distress in the Aegean Sea. One vessel in distress was rescued by the Greek coastguards and another one by the Turkish coastguards. Another vessel reached Lesvos Island either independently or was also rescued by the Greek coastguards. The fate of one group in distress remains unknown. We also dealt with 4 groups who had stranded on Samos and Farmakonisi, all of whom were found and rescued.

The first case reached our shift team at 2.18am via a contact person who forwarded a screenshot of the position of a boat off the coast of Samos (case 1). We were told about 50 people who had entered a situation of distress and required support. Fortunately, only minutes later, the person informed us that the Greek coastguards had already saved the travellers, which was again confirmed a few hours later.

At 2.52am we received another screenshot through a contact person, indicating the position of a vessel in distress north of Samos Island (case 2). Our shift team was unable to contact the passengers directly but received updates from the initial contact person who told us that there were about 44 people on the vessel. At 3.16am we were told that the vessel, while still in Turkish waters, had been able to move on, toward Greece. However, at 4.25am, the contact person asked us to notify the Turkish coastguards as the vessel seemed to have entered an urgent situation of distress. We quickly informed the Turkish coastguards which took on the case. In addition, as the vessel was also close to Greek territory, we informed the Greek coastguards which told us to inform the travellers to call the international emergency number 112 themselves. Despite trying to contact the travellers and contact persons repeatedly afterwards, no further information about their situation could be obtained.

At 4.19am, a person located in Germany informed us about a vessel carrying about 43 people, still very close to the Turkish coast (case 3). He asked us to alert the Turkish coastguards as the situation seemed very urgent which we did about 10 minutes later. At 4.59am we were finally able to reach the people on the boat directly. They told us that their engine was still working and that they would try to make it to Greece. In the following hours we received several GPS positions showing them moving toward Greek territory. At 5.56am we alerted the Greek coastguards to the travellers who were now in Greek waters, close to Lesvos. They noted down the coordinates and took on the case. For several hours no new information about their situation could be obtained until about 10am when their safe arrival on Lesvos was confirmed.

At 5.23am we were informed about a group who had stranded on Samos Island and was in a situation of distress (case 4). We saw that they were several km away from a village. However, we were unable to directly contact the stranded group. Several hours later we learned through a contact person that the group had been found and rescued by the Greek coastguards.

At 6.20am, we learned about another group stranded, this time on Farmakonisi Island (case 5). About 200 people had stranded there and were in need of support. We then learned about another group of approximately 40 people, who had also stranded there (case 6). We then treated these two situations as one distress case as Farmakonisi Island is rather small and rescue attempts for one group would apply for the other one, too. In the following hours we were alerted to these cases of distress through various contact persons but we were unable to reach the groups directly. We spoke to the UNHCR at 8.40am who told us that they had a team on Leros Island, close to Farmakonisi and would monitor the rescue attempts. They informed us that the Leros Port Authority would move frequently to Farmakonisi and transfer the people in small groups. At 10.02am, one of our contact persons confirmed that at least part of the groups were rescued.

Only a short while later, at 11.45am, we were informed by the same contact persons about another large group which had arrived on Farmakonisi Island (case 7). At noon we informed the UNHCR again. The Leros Port Authority could not be reached but we then heard shortly afterwards that a rescue vessel had arrived at the island. At around 5pm, our contact person informed us that all people had been found and rescued.

In the late evening, at 11.20pm, we were informed by a contact person about a distress case near Chios, concerning a group of about 40 people (case 8). Their engine had broken down and the contact person had already alerted the Turkish coastguards. The travellers themselves could not be reached but at 00:45am, the contact person informed us that they were rescued by the Turkish coastguards.