Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 21st of October 2016

Case name: 2016_21_10-CM88
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to two boats in distress in the Central Med
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Friday the 21st of October 2016, the WatchTheMed Alarm Phone was alerted by a contact person to a case of distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea.

At 3.29am, our Alarm Phone shift team was contacted by a person situated in Libya who stated that friends of his had left with two boats from Sabratha/Libya. Following his estimates, there were between 120-140 people on the boats which had left between approximately 1-2am. He did not have a phone number of the travellers and asked us to pass on any information we might receive about the two boats. In the following hours we tried to re-establish connection with the contact person but it was not possible.

At 7.45am we reached out to the humanitarian rescue vessel Sea-Watch, which was roaming the waters off the coast of Libya. The Sea-Watch crew stated that they had no information about the two vessels and suggested that all vessels coming from Sabratha would come their way. They also informed us that they had already encountered two other vessels and had disembarked the travellers onto their rescue vessel, thereby reaching their rescue capacity. Moreover, without a GPS position they said they would be unable to search for the initial two boats. They would transfer the rescued travellers to a cargo vessel and at the same time keep watch for other vessels in the area.

At 2.03pm we learned that while the Sea-Watch crew was conducting a Search and Rescue operation, they were interrupted by the Libyan coastguards who then attacked the refugee boat. Later we heard that about 150 travellers had fallen into the water and dozens drowned.

Only at 2.11pm we were able to speak to our initial contact person again. He had not heard anything from his friends but would inform us if he received any news.

Later on we learned that about 3,300 travellers were rescued in the Central Mediterranean Sea during the day, in 24 rescue operations coordinated by MRCC Rome.

Weeks later, on the 8th of November, our initial contact person informed us that the boat-people had reached out to him and confirmed that they were safe.