Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 20th of June 2019

Case name: 2019_06_20-CM169
Situation: 120 travellers from Zuwarah intercepted by so-called Libyan Coast Guard
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case:

On Thursday, 20th of June 2019, at 9 :55am CEST, the Alarm Phone received a call from a Thuraya phone. The people calling reported that they had left Libya around 3 am towards Europe in a group of 120 travellers, among them 15 women and 6 children. They informed us that they had started somewhere between Zuwarah and Sabaratha, but they didn’t manage to find their GPS position on their satellite phone. At 10 :40am we still hadn’t found out their GPS position, but the travellers informed us that their engine was not working anymore and 3 people on board needed medical treatment. They asked us to inform the so-called Libyan Coast Guard. We eventually tried to reach the Libyan authorities on different phone numbers but we couldn’t establish a connection. Only at 11 :03am we reached an officer and passed the information about the distress. At 11am, we informed the light aircraft Colibri that was eventually starting to search the boat. At 11:15am, we sent an email to MRCC Rome and informed them about the case. We also alerted the Libyan authorities and UNHCR via email. We monitored the credit of the Thuraya phone and called the Libyan officer in charge again at 11:35am. The officer confirmed coordinating the SAR operation with MRCC Rome. At 12am, the travellers called the Alarm Phone again. We informed them that the authorities were alerted, but the connection was very bad and the call broke before we could again try to find out their GPS position. Afterwards, we stayed in contact with the travellers and the Libyan officer, but we could neither find out a GPS position nor could we get information on a SAR operation. At 1 :45pm the people on board finally managed to pass their GPS position, but it was difficult to understand them and to note the position correctly. At 2 :20pm, the travellers confirmed the position. At 2 :25pm, we called the Libyan officer and passed the position. The responding person told Alarm Phone that the Coast Guard would be leaving from Zawia to initiate the rescue. We sent emails to all respective authorities with the GPS position of the boat. At 2 :45pm, we were in contact with the travellers again and informed them about the responses of the authorities. At 3 :53pm, the travellers called and told us their battery was going low. We tried to reach the Libyan authorities to ask for updates, but we couldn’t get information as this time, only non-english speaking officials responded, if there was a response at all. At 3 :39pm Colibri informed us that they had spotted a boat of the Libyan Coast Guard in the vicinity, but they couldn’t find the travellers. At 5 :35pm, we called MRCC Rome, that told us they were aware that Libyan patrol boat would search the boat, but they didn’t have any information whether the boat was found already. At 5 :57pm, we connected again to the boat, but couldn’t understand anything due to wind and waves. At 6pm, the travellers managed to send a voicemail asking urgently for help. At 6 :52pm we called the Libyan officer in charge again, who told us the travellers would be on board of a vessel and being brought to Libya. At 7pm, the people on board passed us an updated GPS position and told us that they had not seen any rescue vessel. So they were still in distress at sea ! We passed the new position to MRCC Rome at 7 :05pm. The Italian MRCC promised to pass the position to the Libyan authorities. We sent the position via email to the Libyan authorities as well.
We couldn’t reach the travellers anymore. We sent an email to MRCC Rome denouncing the misleading information and the unresponsiveness of the so-called Libyan Coast Guard.
Only the next morning at 8am, we finally managed to reach someone through the Thuraya phone, but it was an officer of the Libyan Coast Guard that informed us that the people had been intercepted and the travellers would be brought to Tripoli.