Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 2nd of December 2015

Case name: 2015_12_02-AEG145
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 7 distress cases in the Aegean Sea
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Wednesday the 2nd of December 2015, the Alarm Phone was alerted to 7 cases of distress in the Aegean Sea. Two groups of travellers were rescued by the Greek coastguards. Two other groups reached Greece safely – they were either also rescued by the coastguards or they made it to the islands independently. We worked on 3 distress cases concerning travellers who had stranded on three different Greek islands. The rescue of two of these groups was confirmed to us while one case remains unresolved.

At 4am a contact person informed us about a vessel on its way to Chios Island, carrying about 40 people (case 1). While we were unable to reach the travellers directly, our contact person passed on regular updates about their whereabouts. At 4.55am we learned that their engine had stopped and water was entering their vessel. We then spoke to the passengers directly who asked us to alert the Greek coastguards which we did a few minutes later. We remained in contact to the group via WhatsApp and at 5.21am their rescue by the Greek coastguards was confirmed.

At 5.26am our shift team received a location of a vessel on its way to Nera Island (case 2). We were unable to contact the travellers directly but received updated coordinates which showed them first in Turkish but then in Greek waters. At 5.59am the group sent us a voice message, asking us to inform the Greek coastguards. We then spoke to them directly at 6.04am and were informed that they were 36 people in total, including children. We alerted the Greek coastguards at 6.09am and were told that they knew already about this particular vessel. Only at 10.50 am we received a final confirmation that the people had safely reached the Greek Island.

The same contact person of case 2 alerted us to a vessel in distress near Lesvos Island at 5.56am (case 3). We contacted the traveller at 5.59am who told us that they were about 50 people, including children, on a vessel that had a hole. We then immediately informed the Greek coastguards which confirmed that they had knowledge of this case and were in the process of operating a rescue mission. At 6.25am we called the travellers again who confirmed that the Greek coastguards had arrived and were rescuing them.

At 6.47am a contact person alerted us to a group of about 26 people who were trying to reach the Greek Island of Nera/Agathonisi (case 4). We were able to contact the group directly at 6.53am and were asked for help. At 6.57am we informed the Greek coastguards which confirmed that they would take on the case. For many hours we were unable to reconnect with the group. At 2.35pm our initial contact person confirmed that they were safely in Greece.

At 8.15am our shift team received a Facebook message concerning a group of about 120 people who had stranded on Farmakonisi Island, in need of rescue (case 5). We informed the responsible Port Authority on Leros Island about 10 minutes later and they confirmed that they had knowledge of the group but they refused to pass on further details about the planned rescue mission. We informed the UNHCR about the case at 8.55am. At 9.35am our contact person informed us that police vessels had arrived and at 10.30am we were told that the whole group had been rescued and was safe.

At 4pm we received a distress call, alerting us to a group of 43 people, including 17 children, who had stranded on the small Greek island of Ro (case 6). They were able to pass their GPS location on to us via WhatsApp which we then passed on to the Port Authority on Kastellorizo Island. The Greek authorities were very uncooperative and while confirming that they knew of the case, were unwilling to share information on a rescue mission and hung up. We then reached out to the Greek coastguards which noted down all the information. They said that the weather was bad in the region so that any rescue operation would take several hours. At 5.48pm the group told us via WhatsApp that the police informed them that they would rescue them in small groups and transfer them to another Greek island. At 7.07pm they told us that the whole group had been rescued.

At approximately 10pm a contact person from Turkey informed us about a 27-28 people, including 10 children who had stranded on an island (case 7). It turned out that they were stuck on the Greek island of Agathonisi. There seemed to be many more on the island, up to 120 people. We informed the Port Autority of Agathonisi who did not speak any English and just hung up the phone. We also contacted the local police station but they merely said that we should contact them again the next day. We then turned to the Port Authority of Pythagoreio which was also fairly uncooperative. We then sent an email to the different authorities and also the UNHCR with all the collected information. This case remained open as no final confirmation of rescue could be obtained.