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

Case name: 2017_09_27-AEG306
Situation: 51 people including 13 children arrived on Greek island of Passas
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Wednesday the 27th of September 2017 at 4.20am, a contact person alerted the Alarm Phone to a boat in distress in the Aegean Sea, north east of the Greek island of Chios. We were provided with the travellers phone number and immediately called them. We learned that there were 51 persons on board, including 13 children, all coming from Syria. They were calm and we agreed that they would call back later on. At 4.48am, they provided us with an updated GPS position via WhatsApp, which showed their boat close to the uninhabited island Passas, east of Chios. At 4.55am, they called us again and informed us that they had arrived on the little island, but that there were many rocks and that they were not able to leave the boat. We provided them with the emergency number of the Greek coast guard and asked them to call this number. At the same time, we called the Greek Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Piraeus and forwarded the information we had received so far, including the travellers phone number and their latest GPS position. At 5.27am, we tried to get in touch with the travellers again, but were not able to reach them. At 5.37am, we also forwarded all information via email to the Greek coast guard. At 5.46am, the person who had initially informed us about the boat in distress told us that the travellers had been able to safely reach the shores. In another call to the Greek coast guard at 6.17am, they confirmed to us that the travellers were on land and safe.