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

Case name: 2020_07_27-CM272

Situation: 17 people rescued by the ASSO29 and taken to Lampedusa

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the Case:

In the night of the 27 July, we were contacted by relatives of people on board a boat carrying 17 people, including three children, which had left Zuwara heading for Europe. They gave us an out of date and seemingly garbled GPS position. They also gave us a phone number for the satellite phone on the boat. We were able to make brief and broken contact to the travellers, but were not able to establish an up-to-date position or get a clear picture of the situation. We lost contact the boat just before midnight.

In the early hours of the morning, fearing that the boat was in distress, but aware that the Italian authorities would illegally pass responsibility to the so-called Libyan coastguard, we reluctantly attempted to make contact with the Libyans. We also copied in the relevant European authorities.As expected, the Italian authorities claimed that the responsibility was Libya's.

Just before seven in the morning we were briefly able to re-establish contact with the boat. We were not able to get an updated position, but we were informed by the panicked travellers, that the boat was now without an engine and was drifting.

Unable to reach the boat or any of the numbers of the so-called Libyan Coastguard, we turn to social media. We send out the following tweet:

SOS! Since last night we are in contact with a boat in distress fleeing #Libya, carrying about 17 people, including 3 children. Communication is difficult & broke at 7am. The people were panicking & we couldn’t receive correct coordinates. authorities are informed & should search!

We spent the day vainly trying to contact the boat and the non-existent Libyan authorities. The closest we came to success was being fobbed off by an apparent press liaison officer. Fortunately, at 20:38 the boat was briefly able to ring us. They sent a new position, just south of the Maltese SAR zone.

Despite the updated position and the obvious lack of involvement from the Libyans, neither the Italians nor the Maltese showed any interest in saving life. We turned to Twitter again:

The ~17 people are still in distress at sea! We lost contact to this boat for many hours but reconnected at 20:38 CEST today. We have since tried to establish a good contact but it has been difficult. We have alerted authorities again & hope for a search operation for this boat.

Throughout the night we were able to make sporadic contact the boat and keep the authorities informed of their position. Vessel tracking that showed them to be north of the El Bouri oilfield in an area rich with merchant shipping. We pressurised the Italian authorities to coordinate, as they should have been, a merchant vessel to intervene. The weather was worsening with high winds.

We reached out to various merchant vessels, but received no information from our approaches. We continued to pressure the Italian authorities to do their duty. Finally, Seawatch's spotter plane Moonbird, which we had informed along with the Libyan coastguard, was able to locate the boat. They were also able to confirm through VHF radio contact with M/V Bassillevousa that the Italian coastguard had instructed them to stand by. We tweet:

The civil aircraft #Moonbird spotted the boat in distress that reached out to us already on 27 July. They are still adrift at sea as all authorities reject responsibility. This situation is unbearable. We call on EU authorities to no longer delay rescue!

Despite visual confirmation from Moonbird and our pressure, nothing was being done. We put out another tweet:

++ 62 hours left adrift! ++ It's a shame that the people in need are still in distress at sea! We informed authorities more then 62h ago and the merchant vessel #BASSILEVOUSA is nearby but the boat is left adrift in international waters, instructed by MRCC Rome not to intervene.

We continued trying to make contact with the boat as they passed a third night at sea, but to no avail. We were also not able to contact the owners of any of the merchant vessels in the area, nor were we able to persuade the Italian or Maltese authorities to even give out information, let alone take on their responsibility. At about 10:15 the next morning, we tweeted again:

Our contact to this boat, spotted by #Moonbird yesterday, was lost. We don't know where they are. The people in distress have been left adrift for days, though we've alerted all relevant authorities repeatedly & though merchant vessels were nearby. We hope they are still alive.

Moonbird, which had had time to return to base and refuel, flew another mission and relocated the boat. They found the boat at 12:49 and alerted authorities to the fact that people were now in the water. They sent a Mayday relay. As rescue was not forthcoming, we tweeted:

++ 80 hours, no reaction: Europe watches people die ++#Moonbird just returned to the boat in distress and confirms that the people are at still at sea, still at risk of drowning.We alerted authorities 80h ago!! Stop these criminal delays, rescue now!!#BlackLivesMatter

Finally, we were able to observe the ASSO 29 move into position and shortly after 15:00 Moonbird observed their RHIB carrying out rescue. After more than 80 hours at sea in horrendous conditions, the travellers were rescued and taken to Lampedusa.