Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 13th of January 2016

Case name: 2016_02_13-AEG207
Situation: 90 travellers stranded on Greek island of Samos, rescued
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Saturday the 13th of February 2016, the Alarm Phone was alerted to a group of 90 travellers who had stranded on the Greek island of Samos. At 2.55am a contact person forwarded the GPS position and a phone number of this group to us and informed us that they were exposed to heavy rain and strong winds, could not see anything and did not know where to go. At 3.05am we tried to call the group directly but their phone seemed to be switched off. At 3.10am the phone ringed but they did not pick up. The contact person told us that they he had spoken to them again, but that their network connection was bad. After several failed attempts we called the port authorities on Samos at about 3.30am, who asked us to direct an emergency call with respect to people on land to the local police. We had some problem with reaching the police, but at 4am we were at least able to forward our information to the port police on Samos, who promised to pass them on to the local police. In the following hours we were not able to reach the travellers again. However, at 1.15pm another contact person who had previously been in touch with the group, confirmed to us that the group had been picked up by the local police and had been transferred to a camp on the island.