Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 27th of May 2020

Case name: 2020-05-27-CM250
Situation: 80 ppl rescued to Malta; 87 ppl (four women, one of them pregnant, three children, one baby) reached Lampedusa on their own
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Cases:
On 27 May 2020, the Alarm Phone was alerted to two cases of distress in the Mediterranean Sea:
The first call reached us in the early morning from 80 people in the Maltese Search and Rescue zone who had started from Garabuli, Libya. We informed the Maltese and Italian authorities, but during the whole day, authorities refused to share information on the status of the rescue operation. Eventually the people were rescued and brought to Malta.
The second call came in at night, from a relative who had lost contact to a group of 87 travelers. We informed all relevant authorities but could not establish a contact to the travelers and the authorities did not share details about their rescue activities with our shift team. Later, we received the confirmation that the people reached Lampedusa on their own.

Case 1:
At 04:04h CEST the Alarm Phone received a call from a group of 80 travelers who had started from Garabuli, Libya the night before. They said their engine was broken, the boat was slowly deflating, and water was entering. The people feared drowning. They passed us a GPS location in the Maltese Search and Rescue Zone and at 04:19h we sent an e-mail to the Maltese and Italian Sea Rescue Coordination Centers informing them about the distress case. At 04:21h we tried to call the Maltese authorities without success. At 04:26h we called the Italian authorities who confirmed the reception of the e-mail but did not give further information. At 04:42h we talked to the travelers again and received a new GPS location and learned that their boat was a black rubber boat. At 04:59h we sent the new information the authorities via e-mail and asked for a confirmation that the coordination of the rescue was taken over. At 05:00h we tried to call the Maltese Coastguard again without success. At 05:04h we called the Italian Coastguard who refused to give information. At 06:28h the travelers called us again and we thought to understand that a Maltese ship was approaching, but the connection was too bad to be sure. We could not re-establish the connection for the next hours. At 10:32h we called the Maltese Coastguard again but without success. We sent them another e-mail asking for an update on the rescue operation. At 13:08h the travelers called us and reported that their boat was full of water and the Maltese Coastguard had told them three times to be coming for their rescue but was still not there. They said there were several merchant vessels around them but not acting for their rescue. At 13:42h we sent an e-mail to Maltese and Italian authorities with an update on the GPS location and the situation on board. At 13:45h we called the Maltese Coastguard but did not get through. After trying several phone numbers, we reached the Maltese Rescue Operation Center who wanted us to call the Rescue Coordination Center instead. When we informed them that they could not be reached, the operation center confirmed to be informed about the case. At 14:30h the Alarm Phone tweeted about the travelers in distress who were 40nm away from Malta and had still not been rescued. Meanwhile we could not get through to the travelers. At 18:10h we called the Maltese Coastguard and did not receive information on the case. At 21:00h we tweeted again about the Maltese authorities who did not confirm to be coordinating the rescue of the travelers. At 21:09h we called the Maltese Coastguard who hung up without talking to us. During the night we could not re-establish the contact to the travelers. Later we learned that the people were saved by the Armed Forces of Malta

Case 2:
At 23:06h CEST our shift team received a call from a relative of someone on a boat. The relative feared for the travelers because they had lost contact at 19:20h. Reportedly, 87 travelers, among them 4 women, one of them pregnant, three children and one baby, had started from Zuwarah, Libya, the night before on a wooden boat. When they talked on the phone, water was entering, and people were in panic. They lacked in drinking water and life vests. We received a GPS location from the time of the last contact to the boat. At 23:20h we sent an e-mail to the Italian, Maltese and Libyan authorities, informing them about the case of distress and asking them to start a Search and Rescue operation. We tried to establish a direct contact to the travelers, but without success. At 00:45h we tried to call the Libyan authorities via several different numbers but could not get through. When we finally talked to someone, communication was difficult, so we called back via an Arabic translator and learned that the so-called Libyan Coastguard hat picked up several boats during the last hours, but it could not be clarified if the group we were investigating about was amongst them. During the night we could not get through to the people on the boat. At 09:30h we called the Libyan authorities again but did not receive details about their operations. Meanwhile, we could still not contact the travelers. At 11:52h we sent another e-mail to the Libyan, Maltese and Italian authorities, reporting that neither we nor the relative could re-establish the contact to the travelers, and asking for information on the status of the rescue operation. At 14:57h we called the Libyan authorities via a translator, but they refused to share information with us. Later, we received the confirmation that the people reached Lampedusa on their own.