Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 20th of August 2016

Case name: 2016_08_20-CM78
Situation: Alarm Phone in direct contact with travellers in distress in Central Med, rescued by Italian coastguard
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Saturday, the 20th of August 2016 at 7.27am, Father Mussie Zerai informed the Alarm Phone about a boat in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea, with about 180 people on board, including many women and children, one of them in very urgent need of medical help. They had left Libya at 11pm the day before and were in distress, because the captain of the boat had left it and it was floating around. Mussie Zerai provided us with the travellers’ Thuraya satellite phone number and their GPS position. At 7.39am, we called the satellite phone and were asked to call the Italian coastguard. We did so at 7.49am and were told that that the coastguard was already aware of the boat in distress. At 8.06am, we called the travellers on board of the boat again and informed them that the Italian coastguard was aware of their situation of distress. Beyond that, we were told that the boat had run out of fuel. At 8.19am, we checked the Thuraya’s credit and recharged it with 10 units. At 9.06am, we called the travellers again, but due to a bad connection we were not able to obtain an updated position. At 9.08am, the crew of the Sea-Watch 2, which we had informed previously, wrote to us that they and the other vessels of the civilian flotilla were too far away from the boat in distress and not able to intervene. At 9.40am, we talked again to the travellers. Communication was again difficult, but we learned that they were able to see a helicopter and a rescue vessel. Afterwards, we called the Italian coastguard and were told that the helicopter belonged to them and that they were trying to rescue the travellers in distress. We called the travellers again and obtained updated GPS coordinates from them. At 9.50am, we forwarded the new position to the Italian coastguard and the UNHCR via email. At 11.04am, we called the Italian coastguard again and were told that they were still in the process of rescuing. In another call at 2.10pm, the Italian coastguard confirmed to us that they had rescued 95 travellers, but refrained from providing us with further details. In the evening, at 8.35pm, we talked again to the Italian coastguard and were told that all rescue operations on that day had been successfully accomplished, with 573 travellers rescued in total. However, we were not able to get more information on the difference between the 95 rescued travellers and the 180 persons on board of the boat in distress, Mussie Zerai had initially informed us about.