Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 19th of August 2020

Case name: 2020-08-19-CM285
Situation: 80-90 travelers (14 women, 5 children) and 120 travelers started from Zawiya in convoy, arrival/rescue to Italy confirmed by relatives. Refusal of information about rescue operations by authorities in both cases.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Cases:

Case 1:
On 19th of August 2020 at 08:08h CEST, the Alarm Phone was called by a group of 80 travelers in distress, among them 14 women and five children. We could not receive a GPS location from them. But we had the information that they had started from Zawiya, Libya, around 22:00h on the 17th. The colour of their boat was blue. At 08:18h, we informed the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Rome about this via phone call and passed them the phone number of the travelers. We also sent our information to Italian and Maltese authorities via e-mail. At 08:33h, the travelers called us again and we informed them that we had informed the coastguard. At 08:52h, we called the Maltese coastguard and passed them the info additionally via phone. For the next hours, we could not reach the travelers and did not receive updates from the authorities. In the evening, through media reports, we found information about 88 people who had left from Zawiya and were rescued to Lampedusa by the Italian coastguard. During the evening hours, several relatives called the Alarm Phone, asking if we had information about their loved ones who had left from Zawiya on 17th with 80 to 90 people. We agreed to keep each other updated if we had news about them. At 00:50h, one of them confirmed that the boat had arrived at Lampedusa. We could not receive a direct confirmation of their rescue from the travelers, nor from the coastguards.

Case 2:
On 19th of August at 10:35h CEST, the Alarm Phone was called by a second group of 120 travelers in a blue rubber boat who had started in a convoy with the group of 80-90 people. They passed us a GPS location in the Maltese SAR zone, 110km south of Lampedusa. At 10:45h, we sent this info to Italian and Maltese coastguards via e-mail. We could not reach the Maltese coastguard on the phone, so at 11:50h, we called the Italian coastguard. They confirmed to have received our e-mail but did not share information about their rescue operations. At 12:30h, we received a new GPS location from the travelers and passed it to the Italian and Maltese authorities. At 14:04h, we talked to the travelers again and received their updated GPS location. They reported that people were feeling sick. We passed the update to the authorities. The Maltese coastguard could still not be reached on the phone. The Italian coastguard kept referring us to Malta. At 14:30h, we reached the Maltese coastguard. They said they were involved in many distress cases and did not share information about their strategy for the 120 travelers. At 16:30h, we talked to the travelers and received updated GPS data. By then, they were desperate and reported that several people were in bad conditions. They also had problems with their engine since hours. We passed them the number of the Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) to call by themselves. We updated the authorities via e-mail. At 16:45h, AFM did still not confirm to have launched a rescue operation for the people. At 17:30h, the travelers reported that hey had called AFM, but they had not assured them that rescue was on the way. The people on the boat were very stressed and repeatedly asked for help. At 17:44h, they passed us an updated GPS location and reported that more and more water was entering the boat and they were drifting. We passed the info to the authorities. At 17:49h, an officer of AFM told us on the phone that the travelers kept calling them. He asked us to tell them to stop calling to save battery. We agreed we could do it but needed information about the rescue operation to be able to calm the people down. According to the officer, AFM was trying to contact merchant vessels in the vicinity of the travelers. At 17:52h, we reported this to the travelers. They were agitated and stated that the phone battery was not the problem, but the water inside the boat was their problem. At 19:23h, we received a new GPS location which showed that they had barely moved. We passed the info to the authorities. At 20:02h, we talked to AFM, but did not get any information. At 21:16h, the travelers reported that they had talked to AFM who had stated to come to their rescue. But after days at sea, the travelers regarded this information with suspicion. At 21:32h, we received a new GPS location which we passed to the authorities. The travelers were now approximately 50km south of Lampedusa and 20km away from the Italian SAR zone. We received a new location at 23:30h from the very exhausted people. At 23:48h, they reported that AFM were not answering their calls anymore. At 00:25h, they passed us their GPS location which showed them drifting backwards. People on board were panicking and did not understand what was happening to them. They were lacking water and food. At 00:52h, our shift team was called by the husband of someone on the boat. He was very worried for his wife and asking why no one was coming for their rescue. Until the next morning, we talked several times to the travelers who were still without rescue. For some time, they could restart their engine and move towards Lampedusa. At 05:14h, we talked to the Italian coastguard again who still refused to rescue the people, because their last GPS location was in the Maltese SAR zone. At 07:55h, the travelers passed us a new location and reported they could see the island now. At 08:42h, they sent another update. We passed both to the authorities but did still not get information if they prepared the rescue. At 12:12h, the relative informed us that the travelers had arrived at Lampedusa.

Twitter chronology:
17:41h – https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1296109929087094784
18:17h – https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1296119069482135554
Overview on the situation in the CM, 18th and 19th of August:
https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1296058506919972864