Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 16th of July 2020

Case name: 2020_16_07-CM265
Situation: 63 travellers reached Malta with Armed Forces of Malta
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the Case:
On 16th July 2020 the Alarm Phone received a call from a satellite phone at 06:14h CEST. They stated to be 65 travelers on board, among them 3 women and 20 minors. The travelers were coming from Eritrea, Egypt, Sudan and Nigeria. They told the shift team they have left in a wooden boat from Zuwarah in the early morning of 15th July, meaning that they already endured 24 hours at sea. They provided the shift team with a GPS position vocally digit per digit. They called for help. At 07:02h all competent European authorities, UNHCR and airborne operation of Sea Watch were informed about the distress case. The next hour RCC Malta were not reachable and in case taking the phone, they remained silent and hung up. Alarm Phone published the first Tweet on this case at 07:38h, stating that RCC Malta is not cooperating. After that RCC Malta took the phone but hung up before the shift team could transfer the latest GPS position. It was sent at 08:05h via email instead. Meanwhile the situation on board got tense, the person on the phone screamed "We are dying, we are dying! Nobody is helping us, there is just sea! Please help, help, help!"
At 10:40h after agreed with the travelers also the Tunisian coast guards were called and emailed. At 11:20h they informed the shift team that the boat is in Maltese Search and Rescue (SAR) zone and on top of that they would have no asset available. The shift team spoke to the travelers at 11:44h and learned that one engine is luckily working again but the situation still very bad after around 30 hours at sea. Neither Maltese nor Tunisian coast guards took the situation of the travelers serious. In a phone call with the travelers at 13:07h they told the shift team about a white air plane they have seen. One hour later the reconnaissance aircraft Moonbird sent an email to Alarm Phone and the competent authorities to inform about a blue wooden boot with around 70 persons on board which were not equipped with life vests. The next 7 hours the shift teams spoke regularly to the travelers and transferred the received GPS positions to RCC Malta, MRCC Rome, UNHCR and airborne operation of Sea Watch.
At around 19:30h, when the travelers were around 36 hours at sea, the shift team started to search for merchant vessels around the last position and to research for their companies. Worried relatives call the Alarm Phone though. Contact to the travelers got more difficult and ended at 21h. The last known position was from 18:50h. At 21h the shift team called the supposed company of one of the merchant vessels nearby. Unfortunately they explained that they don‘t own the vessel anymore but were very keen to help and provided the shift team with the contacts to the recent company. Nobody could be reached there. At 23:40 another company were approached via email but didn‘t answer soon. The whole night no contact to the travelers could be established. At 05:21h the shift team wrote an email to all involved authorities to state that the last contact to the people has been 8 hours ago and urged to not let them drown. The following hours the Alarm Phone tried to gather information but Tunisian, Italian and Maltese coast guard refuse to give any hint to the fate of the people. Only via an article of Times of Malta the Alarm Phone learned that the Armed Forces of Malta conducted a rescue operation for the 63 travelers.