Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 27th of January 2017

Case name: 2017_01_74-CM99
Situation: Boat with about 100 persons intercepted and returned to Libya
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Friday, the 27th of January 2017, shortly before 1pm, our WatchTheMed Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by Father Zerai to a boat in the Central Mediterranean Sea. We immediately reached out to the travellers, who told us that they were about 100 persons. We could not get their GPS position, but forwarded the distress call to the Italian Coastguard. The latter were already in touch with the travellers, but also did not have their position. After our first contact, we did not manage to reach the travellers again, but we recharged the credit of their satellite phone. We called back the Italian Coastguard several times, who confirmed that they were working on the case. At 10pm, the Italian Coastguard eventually informed us that the boat in distress had been in Libyan waters and that it had thus been the Libyan Coastguard, who had taken on the case. However, they did not confirm the rescue of the travellers until a few days later. On the 7th of February, they wrote us that they had employed a merchant vessel to rescue the boat in question. However, the merchant vessel reported that the boat in distress and another boat were in fact in Libyan territorial waters and that they were picked up by the Libyan navy and "escorted back to the Libyan shore". Another 1000 ppl were rescued the same day to Italy, according to a press release of the Italian Coastguard.