Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 22th May 2020
Case name: 2020_05_22-CM247
Situation: 85 travellers departed from Libya, their fate is still unkonwn.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: In the early morning of Friday the 22nd of May we were called by a boat in distress that had departed from Libya and was carrying 85 travellers. The boat was wooden and the engine was not working well. They told us that the waves were very high and that they could see a ship in the distance. At 06:28h CEST our shift team called the so-called Libyan coastguard who told us to call back again later. A few minutes later we sent an email to the Italian, Maltese and so-called Libyan coastguard alerting about the distress case. After receiving an updated GPS position, at 06:37h we passed it on to the Libyan authorities by phone and also sent an email to Italian, Maltese and Libyan authorities. At 08:15h we spoke again to the travellers but connection was bad and broke immediately. After having completely lost contact with the travellers at 14:02h we managed to speak to the so-called Libyan coastguard who told us that one vessel was searching the area but had not found any “migrant boat”. At 17:55h we spoke again to the Libyan coastguard who repeated that they were searching the boat but had not found it yet. During the whole day and evening we continuously tried to reach the travellers but with no success. Finally, at 23:32 we received a call from the travellers, they told us that they were in urgent distress as water was entering the boat and one person had already fainted, fortunately the engine was still working. Checking their GPS position we could see that they had reached international waters and were quite close to the Tunisian coast. At 23:55 we therefore alerted the Tunisian coastguard and a few minutes later we alerted via email also Italian, Maltese and Libyan authorities. At 00:20h our shift team was called back by Tunisian authorities who claimed that the boat was in Maltese SAR, they therefore declined responsibility and told us to call the Maltese coastguard. At 00:30h we called the Maltese authorities, we explained the situation and the officer who answered the phone told us that he had to check with the senior office if they would get active about the case. At 00:39h we spoke again to the travellers who were exhausted and desperate as a lot of water was entering the boat and the engine was no longer working. At 00:50h we called again the Maltese authorities who denied responsibility and told us that the boat was in Libyan SAR. However, despite our numerous attempt to reach the so-called Libyan coastguard on different numbers, we were never successfully able to do so. At 01:05h the travelers told us that the situation was getting worse and worse. At 01:15h we called the Italian authorities who denied responsibility, they also refused to provide us with a working number to contact the so-called Libyan coastguard. At 01:25h we spoke to Tunisian authorities again, they also continued to deny responsibility at 01:50h the Tunisian coastguard called us back advising us to call “Europe” as they have “a direct relation to Libyan Coastguard”. At 02:02h we sent an email to all authorities urging for a rescue operation to take place. At 02:50h our shift team called again the Italian coastguard who however, refused to give us any information. Around 03:30h the travellers called us several times, finally we received an updated GPS position which we immediately forwarded to authorities. At 05:25h the next morning the travellers informed us that the situation was very severe, as all the travellers were sitting “on top of the water”, they also gave us a new position which was still in proximity of Tunisia. At 05:35h we therefore called again the Tunisian authorities who just told us that they would “see what we can do”. At the same time we forwarded the updated position to all authorities. The Libyan authorities still left all our calls and emails unanswered. At 06:31h after having tried to speak to Italian, Maltese and Libyan authorities several times, an officer from the Maltese coastguard finally picked up. We were told that they would not launch a SAR operation and that we were to put pressure on Tunisian and Libyan authorities. We were especially encouraged to contact Tunisian authorities as we were told that they had the capacity to launch a SAR operation. We therefore immediately called the Tunisian coastguard who assured us that they would clarify with the relevant authorities whether they would launch a SAR operation, we were not given any further information. At this point we were no longer able to reach the travellers. During the rest of the morning we called several times different coastguards but did not received information on rescue operations as responsibility was constantly denied and Libyan authorities were still unreachable. Finally, at 12:56 we managed to get through the so-called Libyan coastguard who told us that they had received a call form a boat that could have been “our” case, however they denied to give us further information. In the afternoon we also tried to contact Maridive & Oil Services Vroon Offshore Services as they had a vessels that could potentially be in proximity of the boat in distress, however we were not able to retrieve any further information. We also spoke a few times with the so-called Libyan coastguard who however did not give us further information. In the evening at 18:14h we spoke again to the Tunisian coastguard who again only told us to call the Italian or Libyan authorities. At 20:04h we emailed all concerned authorities urging for a rescue operation and expressing our shock at this act of non-assistance at sea. Unfortunately we were not able to retrieve any further information on the fate of the travellers, which is still unknown. We were very worried because during our last contact with the travellers the situation sounded very dangerous, we hope that they managed to reach land safely.