Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigation – 4th of April 2015

Case name: 2015_04_04-CM9
Situation: Approximately 500 people in distress off the coast of Libya
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea, near the coast of Libya

Summary of the Case: On the 4th of April 2015, the shift team of the Alarm Phone received a message from Father Mussie Zerai, notifying them about a vessel in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea. The vessel carried approximately 500 people, amongst them many women and children, mostly from Eritrea. Father Zerai passed on the SOS call to the MRCC Rome with the position of the vessel.

The shift team called the MRCC Rome as well and received the information that the Italian authorities were working on the case. They refused, however, to provide our team with further details. The shift team searched for ships in vicinity and found out that there were two merchant vessels near the position given by Father Zerai. Our shift team was then informed that about nine rescue operations were going on in the same region. We learned that rescue was underway for the vessel in question.

In the evening, news sources began to report about the arrival of refugees in Italy and confirmed that large rescue operations had taken place close to the Libyan coast (see source 1). Besides Italian vessels, Maltese vessels and the Icelandic Frontex vessel ‘Tyr’ had been involved in these operations that rescued approximately 1.500 refugees (see source 2). Those rescued were brought by the Italian coastguard and navy to Augusta, Porto Empedocle, Lampedusa and a harbor in the region of Calabria.