Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations - 4th of August 2015

Case name: 2015_08_04-AEG32
Situation: Three vessels in distress in Turkish waters, rescued by Turkey; one vessel safely arrived on Lesvos Island/Greece
Status of WTM Investigations: Concluded
Place of Incidents: Aegean Sea, Greece/Turkey

Summary of the Cases: On Tuesday the 4th of August, at around 3.30am, Nawal Soufi’s activist collective alerted us to a case of distress and passed on a phone number as well as GPS coordinates. The travellers could, at first, not be contacted. We reached out to the Hellenic coastguard/Greece which stated that the travellers were in Turkish waters. We then turned to the Turkish coastguard and informed them about the situation. After a while, the travellers could be reached. Communications were difficult and people were shouting in the background. It became clear that they were in acute distress and that there were many children on board. Shortly afterwards, we were informed that they had been rescued by the Turkish coastguard.

At approximately 4.50am, we received a second emergency case through the activist collective. We received both the GPS coordinates and a phone number but were unable to reach the travellers directly. We informed both Greek and Turkish coastguards as well as the UNHCR. About 4 hours later we learned through the Turkish coastguards that they had been rescued.

In the afternoon, we were alerted to a third distress situation by the activist collective. They passed on GPS coordinates and a phone number of the group of travellers which, at first, could not be reached. The vessel was north of the Greek island of Lesvos. When contacting the Greek coastguards they merely told us that the people on the vessel should call 112. A few minutes later we received an update from the activist collective which had been informed about the rescue of the travellers. We were then able to reach them directly via WhatsApp and they confirmed that they had arrived and were safe.