Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 6th of May 2020
Case name: 2020_05_06-CM244
Situation: 45 people rescued after a long delay by the Armed Forces of Malta and taken to be held on a private Captain Morgan vessel at sea
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the Case:
Shortly after midnight, on the 6th of May 2020, Alarm Phone was contacted by people on a rubber boat in distress in the Maltese SAR zone of the Central Mediterranean Sea. There were a total of 45 people onboard, including 3 women (1 pregnant) and 3 children. The people had departed from Al Khoms in Libya about 24 hours previously. At 00:41, once a GPS position was received, Alarm Phone alerted both the Maltese and Italian authorities requesting immediate rescue for the exhausted people. The Maltese confirmed they were aware of the case.

At 01:30h CEST we were able to get back in contact with the travellers who informed us that their engine had stopped working and that water had begun entering the boat. At that time, the poeple could see a light ahead of them but it was unclear what this was. We passed the information on Malta.

Despite repeated attempts to call the boat we were unable to re-establish contact until 03:04h at which time they were able to provide us with a new GPS position. They also advised that they had run out of food and water. Malta neither answered our phone calls nor responded to our emails.

After several hours of no contact we were able to reach the travellers again at 10:17h at which time they informed us that water was now coming heavily into the boat. Despite the worsening emergency situation, the Maltese authorities refused to communicate with us. We continued calling the boat and kept up the pressure on the Coastguard to coordinate a rescue.

At 13:15h we recieved information from the people on the boat that they could now see a white ship with a large antenna approaching them. This was the last contact that we had with the travellers. We passed this information to the authorities and asked them to confirm that this was their ship going to rescue. We received no response despite repeated follow ups.

It was only much later, using information reported in the press, that we were able to confirm that the people we had been in contact with on this boat were in fact rescued by the Maltese army's P52 patrol boat. They were not however then taken to a port of safety. Instead they were transferred to a private vessel, belonging to the Captain Morgan company to be held onboard just outside Maltese territorial waters.

Despite the urgency of the situation for the people on board, it took over 12 hours for the relevant authorities to conduct a rescue. Additionally, despite Alarm Phone's repeated follow ups with additional information from the people on board and requests for confirmation of a rescue operation, Maltese authorities provided no official confirmation of action. Instead we had to rely on reports from the press to eventually confirm rescue of the people in distress by the Armed Forces of Malta.

The rescue confirmation from the press can be viewed here