Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 21st of January 2019
Case name: 2019_01_22-CM149
Situation: CM Push Back to Libya on Cargo Ship Lady Sham
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: At 2.51pm CET on January 21, 2019, the Alarm Phone shift team was contacted by travelers on the Lady Sham merchant vessel which had rescued them in distress but then refouled them back to Libya. The people on the phone were screaming, asking for help to not be returned to Libya, and that they would rather kill themselves than be returned. A few minutes later, the shift team was contacted by another person on the same boat, again asking for help. The shift team members tried to support the people, who reported that they were told they would be brought to Italy.

The shift team had several similar phone conversations with the people on the Lady Sham, trying to determine how many travelers there were, of which gender, and where the boat was heading back to in Libya. The shift team relayed all information to media and to MSF based in Libya. The following morning, the Alarm Phone was alerted to the fact that the travelers had been violently disembarked over the course of the night.

Throughout the day, women from this group called the Alarm Phone repeatedly while in detention, attesting to having been beaten while disembarking (including pregnant women). They asked for help and for their voices to be heard. They also reported about a rebellion in the camp where people were trying to escape, that was ended violently, with the Libyans entering with guns. All the men were also reported to have been beaten. The Alarm Phone connected the women to journalists who reported on their situation, including images from detention: https://www.corriere.it/esteri/19_gennaio_25/migranti-lady-sham-sono-chiusa-un-centro-detenzione-ho-aborto-corso-7e471f50-2074-11e9-926b-daa18cae285e.shtml