Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 17th of February 2016

Case name: 2016_02_17-AEG209
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 11 distress cases in the Aegean - 6 cases of distress at sea and 6 cases of distress on land.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Wednesday, the 17th of February 2016, the Alarm Phone was alerted to 11 cases of distress in the Aegean Sea - 6 cases of distress at sea and 5 cases of distress on land. Hundreds of travellers called for help as they were stuck on different Greek islands: About 12 persons stranded on a small island close to Symi, 40 persons stranded on a rocky beach of Ro, two groups of about 300 travellers in total stranded on the military island of Farmakonisi and around 50 travellers were stuck on Pasas. We think that all travellers were picked up, but we could not obtain a final confirmation in the case of Farmakonisi. In one case we received an alert from an overcrowded prison in Izmir, Turkey that we forwarded to an NGO in Turkey. The distress cases at sea were near Farmakonisi, Chios, Agathonisi and near the Turkish Coast. In four cases the travellers were rescued by the Greek Coastguard and arrived safely in Greece, in three cases the boats were picked up by the Turkish Coastguard and thus brought back to Turkey. In one rescue operation of the Greek Coastguard, at least three persons died.

At 1.52am, we received a Facebook alert with a position (a small island East of Symi) and a contact number. We called the number. The communication was difficult, but we understood that they were about 6 persons with at least three kids stuck on the island. At 2.13am, we called the Port Police in Symi, but no one answered our call. We thus tried with the local police in Symi, who passed us another number of the port authority. This one worked. At 2.14am we spoke to an officer, who said that they would pick up the travellers in the morning around 7 or 8 and that we should call back later. We told him that there were children among the travellers. He asked us about the health situation of the travellers. Talking to our contact person we learned that they were in fact 12 persons and that one of them was an elderly lady who had cancer. At 2.36am we called the port police again to give them an update on the number of people. The officer asked us for the name of the island, but on our maps we did not have this information. Our contact person also told us about a pregnant woman among the travellers, who was about to give birth. We reached out to the port authorities again, in order to convince them to send a boat now. Also the communication with them was difficult, but they told us to call them back half-hour later. At 3.46am we called the people on the island. The man who picked up the phone was breathing heavily and told us that they were freezing and that his mother and two of the children were not doing well. We could not communicate well, so we tried to organize a translator for Arabic. At 4.23am we called the Port Police. Again, they told us that they would wait until 7 or 8 in the morning to go rescue the people. Through the help of a translator we learned that two of the children had fever, but we could not confirm whether a woman had given birth or not. At 6.25am, we called the port police again. They asserted that a boat was underway and should be there in 10 minutes. At 11am the Port Police confirmed to us that they had saved 7 persons.

Case2: At 3.13am, we received a Facebook message about 40 travellers stranded on a rocky beach on the island of Ro. At 3.37am, we informed the Port Police of Kastellorizo. They already knew about the case and told us that they would probably not pick them up before daylight. We forwarded this information to our contact person. At 9.13am, we called the stranded travellers, they picked up the phone, but we could not communicate due to language problems. One hour later, the Port Police confirmed that they had picked up the group and that everybody was ok.

Case 3: At 4.51am, a WhatsApp alert reached us with the location of a boat (East of Farmakonisi) and a contact number of the travellers. They were about 40 and were in trouble, because they had lost their engine. We reached out to the Greek Coastguard, but also asked the contact person to tell the travellers to get in direct touch with the Coastguard. We tried to reach out to the travellers ourselves, but our call was not answered. We cannot find them on WhatsApp. At 5.22am, our contact person confirmed that the Greek Coastguard had rescued the boat and that all travellers had arrived safely in Greece.

Case 4: At 5.33am, a WhatsApp alert reached us about a boat in distress on the way to Chios. The boat seemed to be just on the border between Greece and Turkey. We could not reach the boat to ask for an updated position. At 5.48am, we called the Greek Coastguard about Case 5, so we also told them about the boat near Chios. They said that the boat was still in Turkish waters. Our contact person said that the boat was probably in Greek waters, but he had lost connection with the boat. We kept sending WhatsApp messages to the contact on the boat. The person received the messages, but apparently could not read them. At 6.45am our contact person informed us that the Greek Coastguard had rescued the travellers and brought them to Chios.

Case 5: At 5.38am, a contact person informed us via Facebook about a boat near Agathonisi that had run out of fuel. We could not reach the travellers, but informed the Greek Coastguard at 5.48am about the case. They promised to look for the boat. At 9.32am our contact person finally confirmed the rescue of the boat by the Greek Coastguard.

Case 6: At 8.41am, we received an urgent distress call via Facebook about a boat between Dikili, Turkey and Mytilene, Lesvos, Greece. We tried to, but could not reach the travellers. A few minutes later, at 9am, we learned that the Greek Coastguard had already rescued the boat. Only later, at 11.45 we heard that while most people could be rescue, three had died and six people were missing.

Case 7: On Wednesday evening, at 6:50pm a Facebook alert reached us about a boat carrying 40 travellers with engine problems near Didim, Turkey. We tried through all possible channels to reach the people (text message, WhatsApp, call), to send them information on how to restart their engine, but they were not available. At 8pm, we finally reached them but they were already back in Turkey. A Turkish ship had intercepted them.

Case 8: Just before 8pm, we received another alert with a contact number. We called the travellers and they told us that they were about 150 people and that they had arrived on the military island of Farmakonisi at 2am. Some of them were in need of medical assistance. A military doctor had come by, but had not taken anyone. We advised them to call 112 and we called the Coastguard in Leros. On the phone, the officer on duty was not cooperative. At 8.34pm we received another alert about a group of 120 travellers stranded on Farmakonisi with a position North of the position of the group we had been in contact with. The second group of about 120 travellers had arrived on Farmakonisi at 9am. They were in urgent need of help. At 9pm, the military staff brought some food, which however did not suffice for all. The 120 persons were moving towards the other group. We sent WhatsApp messages to the first group, but they did not receive our messages. Even though we could not establish direct contact with the stranded travellers anymore, we could see on Marinetraffic, that the ships ILIAS T and VOS GRACE went to Farmakonisi on Thursday morning - probably to pick up the travellers.

Case 9: At 5pm, a contact person told us about 300 persons imprisoned in Dikili, Izmir. He sent us pictures, showing hundreds of people crammed into a few small rooms. He told us that 50 persons had fainted. We sent an e-mail to the UNHCR to inform them about the overcrowded prison in Turkey. At 7.11pm, our contact person told us that he had lost contact with the people in prison. He explained that the people had wanted to go to Greece, but that they were caught, while still in Greece. We tried to contact the people in Dikili, but also could not reach them. We thus contacted a few solidarity groups in Turkey about the case. Two of our NGO contacts in Turkey took over the case. On Thursday morning one of our contact persons in Turkey told us that, according to the UNHCR, there were about 264 persons in prison in Dikili, most of them from Syria and Afghanistan. One person with a high fever had been taken to hospital. However, besides that, the information about people losing their consciousness could not be confirmed. The UNHCR apparently provided some food to the people in jail. From one contact person we heard that some of the people in jail had started to protest against the conditions and had demanded their release, however, we could not confirm this information. On Thursday night, at 6.30 one of our contacts confirmed to us that an hour earlier, all people had been released from prison. One of our contacts explained to us that such 48-hour detention periods are not unusual: travellers are often held for up to two days in prison to be registered and checked. They are mostly detained in places that are not suitable to house many people.

Case 10: At 9:17pm, we received a WhatsApp message about 38 travellers in distress near the Turkish coast. Water was coming into the boat. They tried to return to the coast, but too much water was entering the boat and they had already gone out too far. We immediately called the Turkish Coastguard, who promised to take care. At 9.39pm the travellers told us that they could see the lights of a ship. At 10pm, they confirmed that the Turkish Coastguard rescued them.

Case 11: At 9:30pm, we were alerted via WhatsApp to a group of 50 persons stranded on Pasas. We reached them and they told us that they were close to a church. They had about 15 children with them. We gave them the number of the Coast Guard, but also sent an e-mail to the Coastguard. At 10.48 pm, we called the Chios Port Authority. They told us that one of them was on Pasas. We thus reached out to the people on Pasas again. They told us that the Turkish Coast Guard had followed them and that the Greek Coastguard had fired light shots (to warn the Turkish Coastguard?). The travellers had escaped from the South to the North of the island, where Greek soldiers were stationed. The soldiers had told them to wait near the church. At 11.43pm we had contact with the group on the island again. They told us that they needed water and that they could not enter the church, because it was locked, but that they were overall ok.
At midnight, they sent us a message, asking if us if they could ask the military for water. We told them that of course they should try to get some water form the military. At half past midnight, we sent a message to the Chios Refugee Support group. On Thursday at 1pm, our contact person eventually confirmed to us that the people had been picked up and transferred to Chios.