WatchTheMed Alarm Phone Investigations – 7th of November 2018
Case name: 2018_11_07-CM141
Situation: Boat intercepted off the coast of Libya
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Wednesday, the 7th of November 2018, the Alarm Phone was alerted to a boat in distress off the coast of Libya, carrying about 100 people, including 5 women and 3 children. At 18.18h CET, we received a direct phone call from one of the travellers. He told us that there were about 100 people on the rubber boat that had left from Al Khums, including several women and children who urgently needed to be rescued. They had left already the night before on a rubber dinghy and were at sea for over 19 hours when they reached out to us.

We received their GPS position and informed MRCC Rome at 20.50h. The Italian authorities suggested that despite the boat’s position in the international SAR zone, the so-called Libyan coastguards should be notified. Given the lack of rescue options and the fact that MRCC Rome would notify the Libyan authorities in any case, Alarm Phone members sought to contact the Libyan authorities – but without success. We also informed the Maltese authorities to the situation. Though constantly trying, we were not able to reach the boat anymore. We spoke to MRCC Rome again at 10.16pm and explained that the Libyan authorities could not be reached. MRCC Rome stated that they could not provide us with any information on the distress case. At 10.23pm, we received an email from MRCC Rome, suggesting that the boat was clearly in the Libyan rescue zone and thus not of their responsibility. They asked the Alarm Phone to direct information to the ‘competent’ Libyan authority and not to them. In response, we stressed that the Libyan authorities could not be reached and demanded MRCC Rome to launch a SAR operation. At 11.13pm, we received another response, suggesting again that MRCC Rome was not the responsible authority. They informed us that they had been in regular exchange with the Libyan authorities who confirmed their launch of a SAR operation. At 11.50pm we called MRCC Rome to once more exert pressure to engage in rescue – to no avail.

At 1.22am, the Alarm Phone was contacted by the boat but the connection was too bad to understand them. We reached them briefly at 1.24pm but could not understand them properly. We informed MRCC Rome at 1.56am that the boat had reached out to us again. They stated that they would forward this information to the Libyans. At 3.58am, the travellers tried to forward their GPS position but the call was interrupted. At 4.06am, we received their updated coordinates and at 4.09am they informed us that they had water coming into the boat. Their boat was a blue rubber dinghy. We informed MRCC Rome at 4.20am and they said they would forward the information to the Libyans. We also informed MRCC Malta and they said that they would forward this information to the Maltese coastguards.

At 5am, we recharged the satellite phone on the boat with credit so that they would be able to continue making distress calls. We also informed the civil reconnaissance aircraft Moonbird to the case and at 7.20am they said that they would go out to search for the boat. We spoke with the Maltese authorities at 7.36am but they stated that they would not conduct a SAR operation. At 7.46am we spoke with MRCC Rome and they suggested that the Libyans had intercepted the boat. At around 10am, Moonbird reached the area of the boat but could not spot any boat. During the day and the one after, we tried to reach the boat many times but could not get through. We had to close the case hoping that they were indeed found as suggested by MRCC Rome.

In this case, the ‘rescue’ of the 100 people by the Libyan authorities would mean their return into conditions of confinement, torture, extortion, and sexual violence – conditions that they were trying to escape from. Europe has handed over the mandate to the Libyan authorities to abduct precarious people at high sea. We fail to find words for the perversity of the situation – with torture or death seemingly being the only options left for people seeking safety in Europe.