Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigation – 7th of June 2015

Case name: 2015_06_07-AEG13
Situation: Syrian refugees on a vessel in distress in Aegean Sea, intercepted and rescued by Turkish coastguards
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case: On the 7th of June 2015, at around 1pm, the Alarm Phone was contacted by a friend who alerted our shift team to a vessel in distress somewhere in the Aegean Sea. He had spoken to passengers who reported that a Turkish vessel, thought to be the police, chased after them and had fired shots at them. Our friend passed on a satellite phone number but the passengers could not be reached anymore.

Our shift team then turned to the Greek coastguards in Piraeus and passed on the received information. In a phone conversation with the Turkish Main Search and Rescue Coordination Centre (MSRCC) in Ankara, we learned that they knew of the case already. They stated that there were three distress situations at the moment and asked us to pass on further information when obtained.

MSRCC Ankara then reached out to us three times within one hour, asking us for the satellite phone number, informing us that they were working on the case and reporting at around 4.17pm that they had rescued approximately 100 people from a vessel in distress called ‘Sugar’. However, it could not be established whether or not this was the vessel in question. The phone of the passengers remained unreachable and seemed to have been switched off.

While conclusive evidence for their rescue could not be found, it seems very likely, also following a press release from the Turkish coastguard in which they state that 162 Syrians were rescued from a vessel in distress in the area of Antalya, Finike, Finike Açıkları on the 7th of June (see source 1).