Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 2nd of October 2018
Case name: 2018_10_02CM137
Situation: 120 travellers in distress in the Central Med. Finally found by the Libyan authorities and brought back to Libya
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Tuesday the 2nd of October at 3.48pm, the Alarm Phone shift team received a direct call from a boat which had left from Libya. The connection was very bad, and it was impossible to understand anything. We kept trying to call back the number, which was no longer reachable. However, by monitoring their phone credit online we could see that they were in contact with someone, and our shift team was able to recharge their credit whenever it became low. At 5.57pm we managed to reestablish contact to the boat, and learned that they were 120 people, including 20 women and 13 children, and that they were in urgent distress as high waves were entering the boat, and they were out of fuel and thus left drifting. The connection was then once again interrupted, and for a while they were again not reachable. An hour later, however, we received their position, showing that they were still within the so-called Libyan search and rescue zone. At 7.55pm we called the Italian coast guard and forwarded the information we had. They told us that the Libyan authorities were already aware of and in charge of the case. At 8.42pm we tried reaching out to the Libyan authorities, but we were not able to get through to them, and only got the information via the Italian coast guard, that the Libyan authorities had sent two assets to look for the boat. Despite many attempts, only at 11.32pm did we manage to get through to one of the numbers of the Libyan authorities, but they were unable or unwilling to give us any information about whether a rescue operation was being carried out. We were still not able to reach the travellers and could see from their credit remaining the same that they were also not in contact with anyone else. At 11.48pm the Italian coast guard informed us that the Libyan authorities had probably found the boat, and an hour later we spoke to them again, and they confirmed that the travellers had been rescued and brought back to Libya. However, we were not able to get through to the Libyan authorities to get a direct confirmation from them about the rescue operation.