Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 31st of January 2016

Case name: 2016_01_31-AEG198
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 6 cases of distress in the Aegean, near Lesvos, Pasas, Kos and Kastellorizo
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Sunday, the 31st of January 2016, the Alarm Phone was alerted to 6 cases in the Aegean, near Lesvos, Pasas and Kastellorizo. In all cases the safe arrival of the travellers could be confirmed. One boat that had trouble with their engine eventually arrived without assistance in Lesvos. Another boat in distress was rescued up by the Turkish Coastguard. All travellers stranded on Pasas were picked up by the Port Authorities of Chios and those stranded on Kastellorizo were picked up by the local Port Police.

Case 1: Shortly before midnight, we received a WhatsApp alert about a boat carrying 35 travellers, in distress north of Lesvos. We immediately reached out to the people on the boat: Our contact person on the boat was calm, but worried, as water was coming into the boat. However, the engine was still running. She tried to call the Greek Coastguard, but they did not pick up the phone. We provided her with another number and promised that we would also inform the Coastguard. At quarter past midnight, we called the Coastguard and informed them about the case. They said that they had just rescued a boat in the same area, carrying about 200 persons. We also sent an e-mail to the Coastguard, urging them to rescue the travellers on the leaking boat. At 1am the Greek Coastguard called us to inform us that they had reached the travellers and that they had arrived on Lesvos. A few minutes later, we also managed to reach them and the travellers confirmed that they were about to step on a bus, which would bring them to a camp.

Case 2: At 2am, to contact person informed us about 20 people stranded on the deserted island of Pasas. They had arrived several hours earlier. After several unsuccessful attempts, we finally reached the stranded travellers at 2.30am via Viber. They told us that they were 21 persons all together: 8 women, 8 men, and 5 children. They had arrived about 2 hours ago and could not call the Greek Coastguard, because they could only call via Viber. We called the Port Authorities on Chios, who, a bit irritated, told us that they would pick up the people as soon as the sun rises as they always do. We let the stranded travellers know that they would have to wait at least 4 hours to be picked up. They decided to move to the church to search protection from the cold. Several hours later, both the Port Authority and our contact person who was not part of the group confirmed that the group was picked up.

Case 3: At 4am, we were informed about 35 travellers stranded on Kastellorizo. At 5am, we called the Port Police on Kastellorizo, who told us that the travellers had been picked up already. The contact person confirmed this information. We did not have direct contact with the travellers.

Case 4: At 4:28am another alert reached us concerning 37 travellers in distress in Turkish waters. We reached the boat and they told us that they had a problem, as their engine was broken. They asked us to call the Turkish Coast Guard. The Turkish Coastguard told us that they already knew about the case and asked us to advise the travellers to get in direct contact with the Coastguard. After our first contact, we could not reach the people anymore, but at 6.20am the person, who had first contacted us about the case, told us that the people had been rescued.

Case 5: Shortly after the third alert, we were informed about another case of distress: A group of about 37 persons had left Turkey by boat, but then ran into trouble with their boat, so that they had to turn around. They had landed on a Turkish beach surrounded by high cliffs, from where they could not move. We could not reach the people, but informed the Turkish Coastguard about them. They promised to take care of the case. At 5.30am we received another phone number and manage to reach the travellers. We told them that help was underway. At 7am, the contact person messaged us that the travellers had managed to start their engine again and had left the beach. At 4.19am, he confirmed that the boat had made it to Greece.

Case 6: At 6:17am, another message about travellers stuck on Pasas reached us. This time it concerned a group of about 55 persons who had arrived on Pasas the day before. We got in touch with them and told them to stay warm and that someone would come pick them up later in the morning. Together with the other group, that we had been in touch with (see case 2), they were picked up a few hours later by the Chios Port Authority.