Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 24th May 2020
Case name: 2020_05_24-CM248
Situation: 78 travellers rescued by the Maltese coastguard and 55 travellers intercepted back to Libya.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Sunday the 24th of May the Alarm Phone was alerted to two boats in distress that had departed from Libya. One boat was rescued by the Maltese coastguard and one boat was intercepted by the so-called Libyan coastguard.

In the early afternoon of Sunday the 24th of May the Alarm Phone was called by travellers on an inflatable black boat in distress that had left from Al Khoms two days earlier. The boat was carrying 78 travellers including 2 women and 4 children. The engine was no longer working, one of the children was sick, the travellers had no food left, and water was entering the boat. They were urgently asking for help. At 14h45 we received their GPS position and at 15h05 we alerted the Maltese coastguard. The Maltese officer told us that the boat had been identified by a Frontex aircraft, OSPREY3 and they had sent the merchant vessel, Leo1, to look for the boat in distress, however Leo1 had not yet found the boat. The officer also told us that even when they would have found the boat they would not intervene as long as the boat was moving because this would mean that it was not in distress. The officer also said that according to the photographs taken by a Frontex aircraft, water was not entering the boat. Nonetheless the officer confirmed that they would proceed to a rescue operation if the boat was considered in distress according to their definition. We were also told that a coastguard vessel would be dispatched to assist Leo1. Following this phone call we sent an email to Italian and Maltese coastguard with all the information that we had on this case. Following the trajectory of Leo1 we could see that the vessel was heading south, away from the boat in distress, and it did not look like it was following a search pattern. At 16h02 we called the Maltese coastguard again, but this time the person that picked up the phone told us that he could not give us any information. At this point we had lost contact with the travellers, as their phone could no longer be reached. At 17h18 we sent another email to the Italian and Maltese coastguard inquiring whether the travellers had been rescued and whether the vessel of the Maltese coastguard had been dispatched. A few minutes after we received a call from the travellers, however connection was very bad and we could not understand each other. After a few phone calls, we understood that water was entering the boat, at 17h30 we also received a new GPS position. However, when our shift team checked the new position, it appeared to be very far from the previous one, unfortunately we could no longer establish contact with the boat to get a clarification about their position. Thus at 18h05 we passed on the most recently received coordinates to Italian and Maltese authorities. At 18h28 we spoke to the Maltese coastguard again; we were informed that a plane had visual contact with the boat and they could see that it was still moving. We were accused of telling lies because according to them water was not entering the boat and the boat was not in distress. We responded that according to the travellers themselves this was a distress case ! At 19h10 the travellers told us that they could not see any airplane or any boat, therefore at 19h34 we emailed the Maltese coastguard informing them about this, and suggesting that therefore the boat that was being monitored by Maltese authorities might be a different one from “our” case. At 20h16 we spoke again to the travelers who told us that they could now see a ship far away, they could not see the name or flag but it seemed like a red boat. After looking up their current position, we believed this boat to be “Giuliana G”, which is red and white, also another Italian fishing vessel, Twenty Four, was in proximity. At 20h44 we passed on this new information to Italian and Maltese authorities and asked if they would launch a Search and Rescue Operation and send out a NAVTEX message to Giuliana G and Twenty Four. At 22h25 we spoke again to the travellers, from their position we could see that Giuliana G was really next to them. At 22h34 the travellers confirmed that by using the light from their phones they could see the ship. At 22h46 we emailed the authorities to inform them about this. At 23h27 we spoke to the Maltese coastguard whom however did not give us any information about a possible rescue operation. At 23h54 the travellers in distress gave us a new position. They told us that they had very little fuel left and also the battery on their phones was running out, they were trying to make contact with the ship via light but they had not been spotted yet. At 00h25 we passed on the most recent GPS coordinates to the authorities. We could see that various fishing vessels were in proximity of the boat. During the night, we then lost contact with the travellers, supposedly because their phone run out of battery. We were also no longer able to speak to the Maltese coastguard for they did not answer our calls and once hung up immediately after we introduced ourselves. At 08h20 we were copied in an email sent from UNHCR to the Maltese authorities requesting information about the Search and Rescue operation. At 09h24 we were informed that the travellers had been rescued during the night by the Maltese coastguard.

Also in the afternoon of the same day we received a call from 55 travellers in distress, including 3 women and 4 children, that had left from Garabulli the previous day. The travellers told us that two people had died, they were very scared, there were strong winds and water was entering the boat. They told us that the boat was a plastic, black boat. At 15h10 we alerted the so-called Libyan and Tunisian authorities as well as UNHCR to this distress case. During the afternoon we tried several times to speak with the travellers again but with no success. We also tried to contact the so-called Libyan coastguard on different numbers but no one picked up. At 21h35 we managed to speak to the so-called Libyan coastguard, however they did not share any information with us. At 22h09 we published a tweet informing about the situation. After having been unable to contact the travellers during the whole night, the next morning we emailed the so-called Libyan coastguard asking if they had rescued the boat. At 14h43 we received confirmation by the so-called Libyan coastguard that they had “rescued” the boat, which they told us, was completely flooded. Sadly, it was also confirmed that two people had already died at the time of the rescue.