Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 10th of January 2020
Case name: 2020_01_10-CM221
Situation: Four groups of travellers in distress in the Central Med. 74 people rescued by Open Arms, whilst we were never able to find out what happened to the rest of the travellers.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the Case:
On the 10th January our shiftteam was alerted to four cases in the central Mediterranean Sea. One boat with 70 people, in Libyan SAR zone with a precise position asking for urgent rescue. We could never reach anybody from the so called Libyan coast guards, neither did MRCC Rome answer our questions, so the fate of the travellers remains unclear. Another example of non-availability of so-called Libyan coast guards. A second boat with 74 people was rescued by Open Arms ; and two other boats with 90 and 92 people which fate is still unclear as we lost contact soon after we were alerted. We tried for over 36 hours to find them, but the authorities did not reply to our requests.


At 06:27h the Alarm Phone informed the so-called Libyan Coast-guards and MRCC Rome about a distress call from a wooden black boat with around 70 people on board including 2 women and 1 child. They left Garabuli around 22:00h the previous day. They told us that their engine had broken, and forwarded us their position from 6am. As the boat was in libyan SAR Zone, we tried to call the so-called Libyan Coast-guards on every number we had for hours, but nobody was reachable. At 07:20h we got a new position, which we transfered to Libyan and Italian authorities. This was the last contact to the boat. No authority replied. We tried continously for the next 3 hours to find information, we reached several times MRCC Rome by phone and email, but never got any kind of information about a search and rescue operation.
This is another example of non-availability of so-called Libyan coast guards. In our experience they are non-available, not reachable, not professional, they do not answer or simply hang up when we call them. It is unacceptable that EU relies on them as partners for search and rescue, as this is costing human lives.


At 12:25h CET the Alarm Phone received a call from a Thuraya phone on a black rubber boat. The connection was very bad, but we understood that there were two boats with 90 and 92 ppl onboard and we got half of a position. Until late evening we could reach the travellers, but were not able to receive the full position nor find out any other circumstances, besides that they were still on the water. Last good contact was the same day at 19:17h. We sent an email to Maltese authorities and called them, but they told they had only done 4 rescues in last 2 days which did not match to these boats. We also called the authorities on Lampedusa. They said they couldn't give us any information. We have no news from these boats until now.


At 16:55h we got a distress call from a boat. We were told by the person on board that they were around 74 people, among them 5 babies. The travellers gave us their GPS positions which we forwarded to Libyan, Maltese and Italian authorities and to the rescue NGO's. Half an hour later, we got a reply from Open Arms that they were one hour away and heading towards this boat. At 19:00 CET, we got the information from Open Arms that all people were rescued and on board. The NGO ship arrived right on time to prevent more death at sea, as people had already fallen in the water, and needed to be pulled out of the water by the Open Arms rescue crew. The so-called Libyan Coast Guards arrived after the rescue NGO ship. The travellers have finally been disembarked in Messina (Italy) and didn't have to go back to Libyan hell.