Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 10th of January 2016

Case name: 2016_02_10-AEG205
Situation: Alarm Phone in contact with 200 travellers stuck on Farmakonisi; all rescued
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Wednesday the 10th of February 2016, the Alarm Phone was informed about 200 travellers who were stuck on the Greek island of Farmakonisi. We stayed in contact with them during the whole day and monitored their transfer to the neighboring island of Leros. Beyond that, we were alerted to a boat in distress close to Nera and to another group of travellers stranded on Samos. Both groups were rescued by Greek authorities.

At 2.25am, the Alarm Phone was called by a contact person who provided us with GPS coordinates and the phone number of a boat in distress near the Greek island of Nera, with 16 women, 7 children and 1 man on board (case 1). We tried to reach the travellers directly via phone, but did not reach them. However, at 2.45am we learned from the contact person that the Greek coastguard had rescued the boat.

Between 6am and 7am we received several messages informing us about a group of 35 travellers, including 10 children, who had stranded on the Greek island of Farmakonisi (case 2). The first contact person had already called the port authorities on the neighboring island of Leros and also alerted the rescue organization Médecins Sans Frontières. In the course of the following hours, it was reported to us that at least another 100 travellers who were partly in need of medical assistance had arrived on the island. Unfortunately, we were not able to get in touch with the travellers via the given phone number. At about 10am, we informed the Greek coastguard in Piraeus about the case and also talked to the port authorities on Leros again, but it remained unclear if they had sent a rescue vessel to the island of Farmakonisi. At 11.30am, we finally received a phone number of travellers with whom we were able to communicate via WhatsApp. We learned that the travellers were still on the island. Thus, at 11.35am, we called the UNHCR in Athens and explained the situation. We were promised that the UNHCR would also call and pressurize the Leros port authorities. At midday, in another call to the port authorities on Leros, we were told that the first part of the group on Farmakonisi, about 50 people, had been picked up and were on their way to Leros. The rest of the group, about 190 people in the meantime, still had to wait on the island. Due to bad weather conditions, transferring all travellers to Leros was difficult; however, the port authorities promised to perform at least 2 or 3 transfers the same day. We informed the travellers on the island accordingly. 30 minutes later, we observed via marinetraffic.com that the rescue vessel ILIAS T was approaching Farmakonisi again. At 1.25am, we noticed that it had left Farmakonisi in the direction of Leros again. We asked the travellers on the island to confirm this observation and they wrote to us that indeed a vessel had picked up some women and children. They were told that the vessel would be back again in about two hours. We promised to them that we would monitor the track of the vessel and that we would stay in contact with them. At 2.30pm, the vessel had arrived in the harbor of Leros. At 3.35pm it left again, but was heading in the direction of the island of Kalymnos, where it usually stays overnight. It arrived there at 4pm. At 4.30pm we talked to the port authorities on Leros again, confronted them with our knowledge about the vessel ILIAS T and asked them about how they were planning to transfer the rest of the group from Farmakonisi. They assured us that all people on the island would be transferred to Leros that day. They also stated that they were aware of people in need of medical assistance. At 4.45pm, we received an e-mail from the Migrant Offshore Aid Station MOAS, who we had also informed about the stranded travellers at about midday. They informed us that they had been tasked to pick up the remaining travellers from Farmakonisi. Their estimated time of arrival on the island was 5.45pm. We informed one of our contact persons accordingly and asked him to forward this information to the people on the island. From 5.05pm onwards, we observed the MOAS’ vessel TOPAZ RESPONDER leaving Agathonisi island and heading towards Farmakonisi on marinetraffic.com. At 6pm, we were again in contact with a person on the island and were told that the travellers saw a rescue vessel arriving. At 6.25pm, he informed us that the rescue vessel had started to pick up women and children again. At 6.35pm, we sent another e-mail to MOAS, asking them if they would also pick up the male travellers. At 7pm, they confirmed they would, but that they would have to take women and children on board first. At 8.50pm, the traveller we had been in contact with earlier that day informed us that all people on the island had been taken on board of the MOAS vessel and would be transferred to Leros. Finally, at 10.15pm, we received an e-mail from MOAS stating that the transfer had been completed successfully.

At 2.50pm, one of our contact persons forwarded to us a phone number of a group of travellers, which was stuck on the Greek island of Samos for one day (case 3). He asked us to call them, but we were not able to reach them immediately. At 4.15pm, the same contact person wrote us on Facebook that the group had been rescued. We tried to get a confirmation from the travellers themselves, but although we reached a person on the phone, it seemed to be a wrong number. Thus we asked the contact person for another number, which he forwarded to us. However, we did not reach anyone at this number and thus closed the case without receiving a confirmation of rescue from the travellers themselves.