Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 17th of August 2020

Case name: 2020-08-17-CM283
Situation: 15 to 20 travelers in distress in Maltese SAR-zone. Authorities refuse information about rescue operations, whereabouts of the travelers remain unclear.
Status of WTM Investigation: Unconfirmed
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case:
On 17th of August 2020 at 19:45h CEST, the Alarm Phone was contacted by a group of 15 to 20 travelers in distress. There were three families on the boat. They reported that water was entering the boat and people were desperate. They had started from Libya the night before. Due to a bad connection, our shift team could not understand more details, but the travelers passed us a GPS location, which was located in the Maltese Search and Rescue (SAR) zone. At 19:57h, we called the Maltese Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC) on different numbers and did not reach them. At 20:00h, we talked to the travelers again and received their updated coordinates. After we had repeatedly not reached the Maltese coastguard via phone, we sent an e-mail to Maltese and Italian authorities at 20:28h, informing them about the distress case and about the lack of availability of the Maltese RCC. At 20:38h, we called the Italian coastguard. They copied the GPS location but insisted they could not do anything in this case. They also did not confirm to inform Malta about the case in the Maltese SAR zone. At 21:01h, we talked to the travelers again and received updated GPS data and learned that their boat was white. At 21:14h, we sent this update via e-mail to the informed authorities. RCC Malta could still not be reached via phone. At 21:35h, our media team made the case of non-assistance public on Twitter. At 21:39h, we called the Italian coastguard again. They ignored our demand to inform RCC Malta about the case and hung up. At 22:00h, we talked to the travelers again. They sounded very desperate but passed us their current GPS location. Still not reaching RCC Malta, we sent another update to the authorities at 22:15h. At 22:42h, we talked to the travelers again, preparing them to probably spend the night on the boat. We agreed to talk to each other once every hour. At 00:11h, they reported to see a vessel, but we could not understand more before the connection broke. Some minutes later, we talked again and received updated GPS data. At 00:52h, we sent it to Maltese and Italian authorities. During the night, we could not reach the travelers anymore. At 07:12h (18.08.), they answered our call, but the connection was too bad to talk to each other. Afterwards, during the whole day, they were again not accessible. None of our e-mails to the authorities were answered, so it remained unclear what happened to the three families. There are hints on social media that they could have disembarked in Lampedusa or brought back to Libya.

Twitter chronology:
21:35h CEST - https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1295444149802545154?s=21