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

Case name: 2015_12_22-AEG164
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 10 distress cases in the Aegean Sea
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Tuesday the 22nd of December 2015, the Alarm Phone was alerted to 10 distress situations in the Aegean region. 2 or possibly 3 vessels were rescued by the Turkish coastguards while the Greek coastguards rescued 4 or possibly 5 vessels. One vessel made it independently to Lesvos Island and while the transfer of one group off the island of Farmakonisi could not be confirmed, it seems highly likely. We were alerted to another tragedy at sea, close to Farmakonisi, in which up to 13 people lost their lives, many of whom were children.

At 7.55am, our Alarm Phone shift team was alerted via a contact person and WhatsApp about a vessel in distress at sea, seeking to reach Lesvos Island (case 1). When we were unable to reach them on their mobile phones, we sent them messages via WhatsApp which they read but did not respond to. Our contact person was able to reconnect to the 38 travellers on the vessel and informed us at 9.04am that they had asked to be rescued by the Turkish coastguards as they were still in Turkish territory and their engine had stopped working. We then reached the passengers directly and they confirmed that. We then notified the Turkish coastguards in Ankara about the situation and they promised to take on the case. For many hours afterwards no new information about this vessel could be gathered. Throughout the day we sought to reach the travellers but without success. The next day we were able to speak to the group again and they told us that the Turkish coastguards had rescued them. In the coming days they said they would try to cross the sea border once again.

Our shift team learned about a distress situation that had occurred during the night at around 7am, concerning 40 people, including children, who had stranded on the island of Farmakonisi (case 2). For several hours we were unable to find out further details about their whereabouts. In the afternoon, the Port Authority of Leros stated that three groups had been picked up from Farmakonisi that day. There were conflicting accounts of the size of the group so that it was difficult to find further information about them. In the afternoon the authorities on Leros said that they knew of the case we were referring to and the group would be transferred the following day. They did not want to clarify why they could not be transferred off Farmakonisi on the day. Later on in the evening we received another distress call about a different group stuck on Farmakonisi Island. It is highly likely that they would all be transferred in the next day or so.

At 8.45am we received a Facebook message from a contact person who told us about 35 people off the coast of Lesvos who were drifting on a vessel without fuel (case 3). We tried to reach them several times without success. Already at 9.30am, our contact person confirmed that they had been rescued by the Greek coastguards.

At 10.06am one of our contact persons alerted us to a distress case near Chios Island, involving 45 people (case 4). At 10.10am we reached one of the travellers and while we could not communicate properly with him it was clear that they were in a serious distress situation. We alerted the Greek coastguards five minutes later and it turned out that they were close to the scene of distress and had just conducted a rescue operation. It seems likely that this was the vessel in question.

At 10.20am we received another distress message via a contact person and Facebook, concerning a vessel on its way to Lesvos (case 5). They seemed in serious distress but, fortunately, at 1.10pm they confirmed that they had independently reached Lesvos Island and were safe.

At 10.30am, again via a Facebook distress message, we were alerted to a vessel near Lesvos Island by several individual contact persons (case 6). After a few attempts we were able to reach the travellers directly and while communications were difficult it was clear that they were in a distress situation. We called the Greek authorities at 10.54am who told us that on account of the GPS coordinates the vessel was still located in Turkish waters. Shortly afterwards we passed on the gathered information to the Turkish coastguards. It turned out that they had been informed about this vessel already and were on their way with a rescue vessel. However, the travellers seemed to be able to move on and the updated coordinates that were passed on showed them in Greek water, close to Lesvos. While we never reached the group directly, their rescue was later confirmed by one of the contact persons.

At 8.30pm we were informed through another activist network about a vessel carrying 75 people that had entered a serious distress situation (case 7). The vessel was still in Turkish waters and when we spoke to the Turkish coastguards they confirmed that they had been informed about this case already. Already less than 30 minutes later our initial contact person confirmed that the group had been rescued by the Turkish coastguards.

At 8.36pm our shift team was contacted by an informant who told us about 50 people in distress near Lesvos (case 8). We contacted the Greek coastguards to pass on the GPS coordinates and we also informed the Sea-Watch crew. The engine of their vessel was broken but they said that they would follow up on the case. At 9.37am they said that the Greek coastguards were searching for the vessel and already 7 minutes later they confirmed that the travellers had been rescued. In turn, we informed our initial contact person about the good news.

At 9.20pm, we received another distress case from the same contact person who had alerted us before (case 9). This time a group of 12 people was in distress near Lesvos Island. When we called the coastguards of Lesvos they informed us that they were too busy with other distress cases and told us to pass on to the travellers that they should dial the international emergency number 112. When our contact person said that they were unable to launch calls from the vessel, we contacted the Sea-Watch crew again and they confirmed that the Greek coastguards had just begun a rescue operation for the vessel in question. However, they informed us that the vessel was in Turkish waters. While our initial contact person confirmed the rescue of the group shortly afterwards, it is not clear who had conducted the rescue operation.

At 10.03pm we received a call from a woman who informed us about yet another group of people stuck on Farmakonisi Island (case 10). As in the previous situations we said that it would be unlikely for the Greek authorities to conduct rescue operations of travellers stranded on islands during the night. We asked her to inform us if there were people who needed immediate medical attention. She called us back at 10.41pm, however, in order to tell us about a vessel at sea that seemed to be capsizing near the island of Farmakonisi. At 10.52pm we informed the Greek coastguards about this case. We reached the contact person and she confirmed at 10.57pm that the vessel had been reached but that some people had died. The next day we found news reports that spoke of 11 dead people (5 children, 4 men, 2 women). 29 people were on board and many were still missing at sea. Later on a Guardian news report spoke of at least 13 deaths (7 children, 4 men, 2 women) and 1 person missing while 15 people had been rescued (source 1).