Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 21st of December 2015

Case name: 2015_12_21-AEG163
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 6 distress cases in the Aegean Sea
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Monday the 21st of December 2015, the Alarm Phone was alerted to 6 distress situations in the Aegean region. One large group of travellers was on their way to Farmakonisi and while their whereabouts and well-being remains unknown, it seems likely that they eventually reached the Greek island. Two groups had stranded on the island of Vatos and their rescue was later confirmed. The safe arrival of 4 other groups was also confirmed to us. They either reached the Greek islands independently (which seems likely in most of the cases) or were rescued by Greek coastguards.

At 4.26am a contact person informed us about a vessel in Turkish territory, carrying about 80 people, including at least 8 children (case 1). When we could not reach the travellers directly, we contacted the Greek coastguards shortly afterwards who took down the coordinates of the vessel which was trying to reach Farmakonisi Island. For several hours afterwards, no contact to the group of traveller could be established and also our contact persons did not receive any news about this vessel. We then contacted the Port Authority of Leros which is responsible for Farmakonisi and they stated that there were many arrivals on Farmakonisi during the night and, to their knowledge, no accidents at sea had occurred in this area. They could not clearly confirm whether there was a group of 80 people amongst the arrivals. Until now we were unable to find out further information concerning the whereabouts of the group of travellers that we were alerted to but we believe that it is very certain that they were amongst those who safely reached Farmakonisi Island during the night.

At 5.28am our shift team was contacted by an informant located in the USA who told us about a group of 23 people, including children and women who had stranded on a rocky island (case 2). With the GPS position that was passed on we were able to locate them on the Greek island of Ro. We sent them a WhatsApp message and contacted the responsible Port Authority of Kastellorizo at 5.45am and they confirmed that they knew about this group. They stated that a vessel would soon leave to rescue them. We passed this information on to our contact person who afterwards sent us updates about the group and confirmed at 8am that the people were safe.

At 6.05am the same contact person as from case 1 informed us about another vessel, this time carrying 35 people and seeking to reach the island of Chios (case 3). With the GPS coordinates we could locate them in Greek waters, close to Chios. Shortly afterwards we were informed that the vessel was not in distress and still moving toward the island so that there would not be the need to alert the coastguards. At 7.16am we were informed that the vessel had reached the island and all passengers were safe.

At 9.12am we were called by an informant who told us about 40 people, including 15 children who were in acute distress (case 4). The GPS coordinates showed them near Lesvos Island, in Greek waters. When we called them directly, however, they said that they were fine and not in need of support at the moment. Updated coordinates at 9.25am showed that they were moving closer toward Lesvos and at 10.56am our contact person confirmed that the people had reached the island and were safe.

At 9.29am we were alerted via Facebook to a vessel near Lesvos Island which had run out of fuel (case 5). We spoke to the passengers directly but merely very briefly as the line was cut twice. Nonetheless, we gathered that they were not in acute distress. Shortly afterwards our contact person confirmed that they were all safe on land.

At 9.40am we received information via WhatsApp concerning a group of travellers stranded on the island of Vatos, close to Chios (case 6). We contacted them directly via WhatsApp and they told us that they were 22 men, 19 women and 24 children. At 10.30am we contacted the Port Authorities on Chios and they confirmed that they had already received information about this group. They informed us that they were organising a rescue mission which would, however, be complicated due to the location of the travellers which was difficult to access. At 10.48am we received new coordinates from the group and at 11.43am we were able to speak to the Greek authorities again. They said that they would try to contact the authorities on Oisousses Island who were closer to the location of the travellers. Soon afterwards our initial contact person confirmed that the people had been rescued from the island by fishermen and were in the process of being transferred to Pasas Island. We called the authorities on Chios Island who stated that they had advised the fishermen to pick the group up. They would be subsequently transferred from Pasas to Chios by the authorities. At 2.47pm we were told that they were on their way to Chios and at 4.19pm and afterwards we received several confirmations that they had safely reached Chios.