Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 22nd of March 2016

Case name: 2016_03_22-AEG240
Situation: 22/03: Group of travellers without food, water and shelter on Greek island of Kastellorizo; one boat rescued east of Lesvos
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Tuesday the 22nd of March 2016, the Alarm Phone was alerted to 2 groups of travellers in distress in the Aegean Sea. One group was rescued by the Greek coastguard east of the island of Lesvos, while another group was stranded on the island of Kastellorizo and not provided with food, water or shelter for more than one day.

At 7.27am, a contact person provided the Alarm Phone with GPS coordinates and two phone numbers of a boat in distress east of the Greek island of Lesvos, with 63 people on board (case 1). In the following minutes, we tried to reach the travellers via phone and WhatsApp, but without success. Thus, at 7.50am we called the Greek coastguard and forwarded the position of the boat. Shortly afterwards, the contact person confirmed to us that the boat had already been rescued by the Greek coastguard.

At 8.30pm of the same day, a contact person informed the Alarm Phone about a group of around 30 people who had stranded on the Greek island of Kastellorizo and had been without any food or water for several hours (case 2). As their GPS position showed them in a village of the island, we informed a local supporter about the group and forwarded the group’s position to him. He told us at 11pm that friends of him had visited the given position but had not found any one in need of help. Nevertheless, he also told us that the position pointed to the island’s city hall, where the authorities had accommodated stranded travellers in the previous weeks, but that this accommodation center was closed in the meantime. During the night, neither the contact person nor we were able to reach the travellers again. On the next day at midday, the contact person alerted us again to this group. He sent us the phone number of one of the travellers, which we forwarded to the local supporter. Meanwhile, another contact person posted on Facebook, that another group of 54 people had arrived on the island and apparently nobody knew what would happen to them. Because on this day the deal between the EU and Turkey became active, it was still unclear whether they would be sent back to Turkey, allowed to move on to the larger island of Rhodes or were forced to stay on Kastellorizo. In any case, no reception facilities were open on the island. At 4pm, we informed the UNHCR Greece about the stranded travellers via email and forwarded the phone number we had received. At 4.30pm we were able to talk to the UNHCR directly and asked for further advises on how to react in this case. The person we spoke to promised to talk with her colleagues on Rhodes and offered to call the local authorities on the island of Kastellorizo herself. We agreed that we would first try to reach the travellers again. With the help of an Arabic translator, we were able to speak to the group again at 5.10pm. They were very desperate and asked us to alert the local authorities, as they were not able to stay on the street without any food or water any longer. At 6.20pm we talked to the local police on the island and were told that they would not do anything about the group, because they were awaiting instructions from the Greek government. At 6.30pm we wrote an email to UNHCR Greece and forwarded this information to them. At 9.45pm a contact person informed us that the group had been picked up by the authorities and had been provided with accommodation. On the next day at 9.30am, we called the phone number of the group again and were told by one of the travellers that they had been brought to a shelter, where they had stayed for the night. The authorities had picked up families with children, but the remaining travellers had not been informed about where the families had been brought. At 10am we talked to UNHCR Greece again and forwarded the phone number of the traveller. We were told that the UNHCR was already in contact with the travellers. Afterwards, we did not receive any further information about the well-being of the travellers.