Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 24th of July 2020

Case name: 20200_*07_*24-CM269

Situation: 70 people intercepted by Lybian coast guard; 56 people reached Lampedusa independently
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean
Summary
On July 24th Alarmphone was alerted to two distress cases. One of which reached Lampedusa independently, whereas a second case was intercepted by the so called Lybian coast guard in Maltese waters and illegally returned to Lybia.

Summary Case 1

Position Case1 : 34.30000°N 12.18333°E from 01:45 CEST

In the morning of July 24th Alarmphone was alerted to a boat in distress carrying 70people. At the time of the alert, people on the boat informed us that they had no food, water nor fuel left and one woman had died on the boat, while others were sick. Information was forwarded to authorities at 09.44h CEST, which was followed by a phone call to MRCC Rome at 10.00h CEST who refused to provide any information on who would coordinate a rescue. During the next 15min we tried contacting authorities in Lybia and Malta via phone; all of our calls remained unanswered. Throughout the morning it was difficult to stay in touch with the people in distress. Eventually we received an updated gps position, which was forwarded to authorities at 12.06h CEST. At 12.22h CEST our call to Lybian authorities was answered, but the operator did not provide any information. An hour later the people in distress provided an updated position and told us they could see a big ship moving some distance away from them. We identified this vessel as COSMO. The coordinates were forwarded to authorities. Contact to the boat in distress broke until 16.00h when the people on board reached out to us saying “we are dying”. In the mean time, the merchant vessel COSMO appeared to be monitoring the situation without intervening. Contact with the people on board broke again and could not be re-established. Later on the same evening we received information from the IOM that the 72 people had been intercepted in international waters, Maltese Search and Rescue Zone, and illegally pushed back to Lybia.

Twitter Chronology:

10.34h CEST: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1286943004683624448

11.14h CEST: https://mobile.twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1286590117830959105

11.40h CEST: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1286778318390472704

15.43h CEST: https://mobile.twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1286658329398464513

16.38h CEST: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1286672202977476608

17.19h CEST: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1286682529332965382

23.40h CEST: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1286778318390472704

July 25th 10.34h CEST: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1286943004683624448

Summary Case 2

Position Case 2 : 34°55'08.9"N ;12°46'41.3"E 20:56 CEST

In the evening of July 24th Alarmphone was alerted to a boat in distress carrying 56 people. Upon receiving a GPS position, we alerted authorities at 21.28 via e-mail. Our call to authorities in Malta remained unanswered; authorities in Italy stated that Malta was responsible for coordinating a rescue for this distress case, who continued to ignore our repeated calls. Upon receiving an updated GPS position from the people in distress we forwarded it to authorities at 23.03 CEST. We could not receive updated GPS after this point, but the last contact to the boat suggested they had made it close to the coast line of Lampedusa. We informed authorities about this at 02.50 CEST. Half an hour later people on the boat managed to convey their gps position to us verbally, which we passed on to authorities. Upon calling authorities in Rome, the responding officer refused to provide any information on this case. All other authorities and coast guards we called refused to either answer our calls confirm they would take responsibility for this distress case. We tried to reach the boat again, but remained unable to do so throughout the morning hours. At 17.16 CEST we received confirmation of a landing of 55 people on Lampedusa with a boat matching the description of this case via journalists.

Twitter Chronology

13.20 CEST https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1286772802880770048?s=19

July 25th 10.27 CEST https://mobile.twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1286940781580869634