Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 25th of December 2015

Case name: 2015_12_25-AEG167
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 Friday the 25th of December 2015, the Alarm Phone was alerted to 7 distress situations in the Aegean region. One large group of travellers seemed to be at risk of push-back in Northern Greece, at the Greece-Turkey border. They now seem to have been brought to a Greek reception facility. Our shift team was alerted to 4 distress cases close to Lesvos Island. The rescue of three vessels by the Greek coastguards was confirmed and the rescue of the fourth one by the coastguards seems highly likely. Another group had stranded on the small island of Ro and was later found and transferred by the Greek coastguards. We were also alerted to a group stuck on Farmakonisi Island. The Greek coastguards confirmed that they would launch a rescue operation.

At 0.59am the activist collective United Rescue informed our shift team about a group of approximately 200 people, including 37 children, who had crossed the border to Greece by land, near Pythion (case 1). We were also told that the Greek police had arrived with several big vans and they were concerned that they were launching an illegal push-back operation. In order to draw attention to the situation and prevent a push-back, we contacted the UNHCR and also posted through Twitter about the situation. For several hours afterwards no new information could be obtained. At 8.55am, in a conversation with the local police of Orestias they stated that they had found a group of about a hundred people who had reached Greece. Only on the 26th of December we received further information. United Rescue told us that the group had been brought to a closed camp in Greece and thus it was clear that they had not been pushed back. They were waiting to be transferred.

At 2.40am we received a message by a contact person and via Facebook, alerting us to a vessel on its way to Lesvos, carrying 40 or more people, including (or possibly plus) 20 children (case 2). The vessel’s engine had stopped running. At 2.50am we contacted the Greek coastguards and they took down the details of the case. We received a new GPS position and when we wanted to pass it on to the Greek coastguards at 3.29am they stated that they had located the vessel already. At approximately 4.30am the coastguards in Piraeus as well as the ones on Lesvos confirmed that the travellers had been rescued.

At 5.22am we learned about a group of 11 people, including 2 children who had stranded on the small Greek island of Ro (case 3). Our contact person was in direct contact with them and forwarded their GPS position. We advised our contact person to tell the group to call the international emergency number 112. We contacted the responsible Port Authority on Kastellorizo, an island near Ro. They seemed to know about the group already and stated that a vessel would be sent to the group in the early morning, at around 8am. At 9.15am the Port Authority confirmed that they had just found the group and were now in the process of transferring them to Kastellorizo. Our contact person confirmed that they had been picked up by a Greek police vessel.

At 1.05pm we were contacted via WhatsApp by an informant who sent us a location of a vessel moving to Lesvos and said that the travellers’ engine had stopped working (case 4). We reached the travellers and they confirmed that they had just been rescued by a boat and were certain that they would be brought to Greece.

At 7.16pm our shift team was called by a contact person who told us about a group that had stranded on Farmakonisi Island (case 5). He said that there were a lot of women, children and two babies amongst the group who were freezing and asking for help. He had already alerted the Greek coastguard to the situation. A few minutes later he sent an update with more precise information, saying that there were 30 people, including 12 children and a disabled woman. Due to the steep cliffs they were unable to move away and further inland. They were exposed to the waves that drenched them in water and had run out of food. We contacted the Greek coastguards ourselves who were well informed about the situation and confirmed that a rescue vessel was on the way to Farmakonisi. At 8.32pm the group on the island sent us a WhatsApp message, saying that they had not yet been rescued. We then also informed the UNHCR. Also an hour later, the group informed us that they were still stuck at the same location. At 10.10pm the Greek coastguards said that the situation was difficult as they could not be rescued with a coastguard vessel and needed to be rescued via land. They suggested that the military stationed on the island would do so. Shortly afterwards we also informed the Leros Solidarity Network about the situation. We spoke to the group at 11.10pm and 11.30pm and advised them to stay together and close as rescue might only reach them in the morning.

At 9.14pm an informant told us about a distress situation off Lesvos Island (case 6). With the coordinates we were able to locate them and we reached them at 9.27pm. They seemed to say that a rescue operation was right then underway and disconnected the call. Afterwards they could not be reached. At 10.23pm, our informant confirmed that they had been rescued to Greece.

At around the same time we were informed by the same informant about another distress situation, again close to Lesvos Island (case 7). We reached the travellers at 9.17pm and they said that they were 40 people, including children. The vessel’s engine had stopped working and following their account a large vessel was nearby which produced a lot of high waves. As the situation seemed fairly calm, we advised to wait a few minutes and see whether the engine could be re-ignited. Afterwards we were unable to contact the travellers so that we contacted the Greek coastguards at 9.49pm and were told that they had launched a rescue operation in close proximity to the location of the vessel in question. We could not re-establish contact to the group but it seems highly likely that they had been rescued to Greece.