Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 26th of February 2016

Case name: 2016_02_26-AEG219
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 9 emergency situations in the Aegean Sea
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Friday the 26th of February 2016, the Alarm Phone shift teams were alerted to 9 emergency situations in the Aegean region. Three boats were in distress near Lesvos Island and they were either rescued by the Greek coastguards or able to reach the island independently. Two vessels in distress in Turkish water were rescued by the Turkish coastguards and the passengers were returned to Turkey. One group on a boat in distress near Samos reached out to us and while it is very likely that they were either rescued or able to reach the island independently, we were unable to receive a final confirmation. Several groups had stranded on Greek islands and were in need of support. Groups on Ro and Pasas were soon found and transferred off the islands and another group on Farmakonisi was rescued the following morning.

At 00.46am, our shift team received a WhatsApp message from our Syrian activist allies about a boat carrying 45 people, moving toward Lesvos (case 1). They had already informed the Greek coastguards and asked us to support the case. We contacted the Greek coastguards at 1.26am to ask whether they had initiated rescue activities after being called by our allies. They were very uncooperative and declined to take the GPS coordinates that we had of the boat. We reached the Greek coastguards on Lesvos at 1.36am and they said that they had received a distress call 15 minutes earlier and this might be boat in question. We agreed to contact them again an hour later to receive an update but, when we tried to do so, we were unable to reach them. At about 3am, our activist allies informed us that some of their members in Lesvos had been able to spot the boat in the water near the island. Later on we received the final confirmation via relatives of people on the boat and our activist contacts, saying that the group had safely reached land.

At 00.57am, we received from the same group of allies information about a boat in distress, carrying about 60 people near the Turkish coast (case 2). We reached the travellers via WhatsApp and asked them whether they wanted us to inform the Turkish coastguards. After receiving their confirmation we informed the Turkish coastguards which promised to work on the case. At 1.22am our allies informed us that the group of travellers had been rescued back to Turkey.

At 1.58am, one of our activist friends sent us a GPS position indicating the location of a group of 40 travellers on a boat close to the Turkish coast (case 3). He told us that the people were in serious distress. When we could not reach the travellers we called the Turkish coastguards who confirmed that they had heard about this boat already and had launched a rescue operation. We passed this information back to our activist colleague at 2.17am who would forward it to the travellers. We then received voice messages from the boat through which it became clear that the situation on board was urgent. We also learned through another contact person that the travellers could see another refugee boat in the vicinity which, later on, was able to re-start its engine and move on. At 6.30am we received the confirmation that the Turkish coastguards had rescued the boat in question.

At 3.50am, we were alerted by a contact person to a group of about 37 people who had stranded on the small and uninhabited island of Ro/Greece and needed support (case 4). They had stranded about 2 hours earlier and there were 13 children and 8 women in the group. We reached the Port Authority of Kastellorizo at 4.15am and they noted down the information and promised that they would go and rescue the people off the island soon. At 6am the group on the island reported to us that they could see the boat of the coastguards approaching and half an hour later they confirmed their rescue.

At 4.30am, a contact person told us about a group of 55 people on their way to Lesvos (case 5). We heard that they were in a situation of distress but neither the contact person nor we ourselves were able to re-connect to the group on the boat. We informed the Greek coastguards but they merely stated that the group should call the international emergency number 112 themselves. At 5.30am another activist group passed on updated GPS data of the boat. Afterwards, we learned that the engine of the boat had repeatedly broken down but they had nonetheless been able to move closer toward the island. We were then in touch with escort groups on the island who at 8.02am confirmed that they had found the empty boat at the beach. Later on in the afternoon we received the confirmation via contact persons that they had been rescued to Greece.

At 8.43am, we received a call on our Alarm Phone hotline and after several attempts we found out that the caller was amongst a group of 40-50 people who were on a boat in the Aegean Sea (case 6). However, they were unable to exactly confirm their location. We asked them to send us their GPS position and also to call the emergency number 108 by themselves. One of our members able to speak Farsi talked to them at 9.08am and they stated that they were moving very slowly and were too many for the small boat. They also said that they had been unable to reach anyone through the 108 number. When we received their GPS position and located them in Greek waters, we informed the Greek coastguards at 9.38am who noted down the coordinates. At 10.14am we spoke to the travellers again and now they were close to Samos Island but scared to approach the beach as the waves were high. Afterwards, we lost contact to the boat and in discussion with the Greek coastguards they informed us that there were several ongoing distress situation near Samos Island. For many hours no new information about the group could be obtained. At 3.26pm the Greek coastguards informed us that they had rescued 5 vessels near Samos but could not, or did not want to, confirm whether ‘ours’ was amongst them.

At 9.46am, our shift team was informed by an activist friend via Facebook that 40 people had stranded on Pasas Island and were in need of support (case 7). We informed the Port Authority of Chios and they confirmed that they knew of large groups on Pasas Island and would find and transfer them off the island. At 2.39pm we finally reached the group of travellers directly and they confirmed that they had been rescued and were on Chios now. We passed on the Welcome2Europe info-guide in English and Arabic (http://www.w2eu.info/map.ar.html).

At 5.42pm, an activist colleague told us about a group of about 26 people that had stranded on Farmakonisi Island (case 8). At 5.45pm we reached one of the travellers and he reported that they had safely reached the island as a group of 26, including 7 children and 7 women, one of whom was old and another one pregnant. They reported that the coastguards had already been there but had transferred only about 50 people, telling them that they would have to wait until the next morning. We reached out to the Port Authority of Leros at 6.30pm and they confirmed that they would rescue them the next morning. We passed this information back to the stranded group. We also informed UNHCR Greece as well as the Leros Solidarity Network. At 9.36am, Leros Port Authority confirmed that the group was being transferred off the island.

At 10.57pm, our shift team received several WhatsApp and Facebook messages about a boat in distress near Lesvos Island (case 9). According to all of our informants, the engine of the boat had stopped working. After several attempts we were able to establish direct contact to the travellers at 11.36pm. They reported that they had tried to restart the engine for over an hour but had been unsuccessful. We agreed to call the coastguards before reconnecting with them. At 11.38pm we spoke to the Greek coastguards and they took down the coordinates. Afterwards we were unable to reach the boat again. When we talked to the Greek coastguards again at 00.25am, they told us that they had already sent out a rescue vessel. Also the Greek coastguards of Lesvos Island said that they had rescue capacities near the location of the boat in distress. At 1.27am the Lesvos coastguards merely said that ‘everything was fine’ without going into detail about the case. At 1.29am the Greek coastguards in Piraeus said that they the group had been rescued to Lesvos. Also, several hours later, one of our contact persons confirmed that they were safe.