Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 29th of July 2020

Case name: 2020_07_28-CM274

Situation: 61 people rescued to Lampedusa

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the Case:

Just before 16:00 CEST, 29 July 2020, we were contacted by the relative of somebody on a boat in distress just south of Lampedusa. They told us that the boat was carrying 61 people, including two women, one of whom was pregnant and a child. They passed as an old position which was close to Lampedusa, and told us that the travellers were now able to see the island. They also told us that the people were in a very bad way and that some were collapsing from exhaustion. This is unsurprising as they had been at sea for three days. We immediately contacted MRCC Rome to pass on the information and to ask them to launch a rescue.

As afternoon turned to evening and evening to nightfall, we were unable to reach the boat or receive confirmation from the Italian authorities that the Lampedusa coastguard had been mobilised. Unsurprisingly, the relative with whom we were in contact was becoming more and more distressed.

At 21:55 we put out the following tweet:

61 people in distress south of #Lampedusa! The people are fleeing #Libya and now their engine is not working anymore and they need urgent rescue! They said they are 4nm from #Lampedusa, some people are in the water and others are fainting. @guardiacostiera

However, shortly afterwards, we learnt from a relative that the travellers had been rescued to Lampedusa.