Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 23 of July 2020
Case name: 2020_0*7_*23-CM268
Situation: 110 people reached Italian flagged merchant vessel COSMO
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central MediterraneanSummary of the Case:
In the last minutes of 23rd July 2020 the Alarm Phone was called by a satellite phone. The communication to the travellers was very difficult, the person on the phone stated that people are dying. Also they stated to be 110 people, among them 20 women. The origin of the travellers were Gambia, Nigeria and Senegal. The boat was a white rubber boat. It took around one hour to receive this information and a complete GPS position as the situation was already tense. The shift team emailed the GPS position and all other information to the authorities in Malta and Italy and to the so-called Libyan coastguard at 01:43h CEST on 24th July. Around one hour later the Alarm Phone could provide another GPS position. At 03:15h MRCC Rome confirmed to have received the emails but refused to take any action as the GPS position was in Libyan SAR zone.
The following shift teams stayed in contact with the desperate, but brave travellers the whole day and transferred their distress calls to authorities as well as to the public via Twitter. Around 11h the boat was definitely in Maltese SAR zone. The travellers begged for help as the engine was not working properly and water came in constantly. Also worried relatives called the Alarm Phone. RCC Malta was not reachable and MRCC Rome stated to be busy or to have no information. At 13:34h the air reconnaissance plane Moonbird sent an email to Alarm Phone and the competent authorities to announce that they spotted a white rubber boat. One tube was deflating and immediate assistance required. The shift team was very worried about the lives of the travellers, among them 7 pregnant women and small children. At 15:05h the Alarm Phone approached the company of the Italian flagged merchant vessel COSMO by email to ask if they are aware of the distress case in close distance. 40 Minutes later the shift team lost contact to the travellers and feared the worst. At 17:11h another email was sent to the COSMO company as well as to UNHCR to make them aware of the situation. 20 minutes later it succeeded and the company could be reached via phone. They stated to havn't get the emails so the shift team resent them. Relieved, the shift team learned at 18h that the crew of COSMO was conducting a rescue. It's a shame that the travellers had to endure the distress situation around 16 hours.

Twitter Chronology

11.45 CEST https://mobile.twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1286598145737138176

14.08 CEST https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1286634027655598081

15.00 CEST https://mobile.twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1286647467975548930

15.02 CEST https://mobile.twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1286647467975548930

16.41 CEST https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1286672202977476608nean Sea