Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 26th of November 2015

Case name: 2015_11_26-AEG140
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 6 cases of distress near Strongyli and Lesvos‬‬
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Thursday the 26th of November 2015 the Alarm Phone was alerted to 1 case of distress on Stronglyi island, where a group of travellers had stranded the day before. The other cases all concerned distress situations on north of Lesvos. In all cases the rescue of the travellers could be confirmed. The stranded travellers on Stronglyi island were picked up by the Greek coastguard and transferred to anotehr island. In one case, the travellers reached Lesvos without any assistance. 2 boats in distress were rescued by the Turkish coastguard and 1 boat was intercepted by the Turkish coastguard.

At shortly before 8am we received a Facebook alert about a group of 12 travellers, with 5 children and one person with a wounded leg among them, who had stranded on Strongyli island. We reached out to them and they told us that they had been on the island for a day already and that they were freezing. They also explained that they had contacted various emergency numbers, but without any success. The Alarm Phone shift team first tried calling the port authority on Kastellorizo, and as our calls remained unanswered, we informed the Greek coastguard via Email and through a call. At 12.30pm, two contact persons confirmed to us that the stranded travellers had been picked up.

Throughout the day, the Alarm Phone was informed about 5 other cases, all of which we located north of Lesvos. In all cases the rescue or the safe and independent arrival of the travellers was confirmed. In most cases the Alarm Phone team did not even have to intervene. At 9am we were contacted about a boat in Turkish waters that had run out of fuel, but that was picked up half an hour later (Case 2). Just past 9am, a contact person informed us about another boat in distress, carrying 35 persons. This boat was also picked up shortly after the call and was brought to Greece (Case 3). At 5 we were informed about a boat carrying 65 persons, that was not in an urgent situation of distress, but they were intercepted by the Turkish coastguard and brought back to Turkey (Case 4). At 6.39pm a contact person informed us about two cases - one with 35 persons and one involving about 50 travellers, both north of Lesvos in a situation of distress, as they had run out of fuel and as it had started to rain. With one of the boats we were in direct contact and could follow their safe and independent arrival in Lesvos (Case 5). The other boat was picked up by the Turkish coastguard (Cases 6).