Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 13th August 2020

Case name: 2020_08_13-CM280

Situation: A boat carrying 11 travellers reached Sicily after the Maltese Coastguard provided them with fuel.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: In the evening of Thursday the 13th of August the Alarm Phone was alerted by a relative of one of the travellers to a boat in distress that had departed from Libya. After several failed attempts to establish contact with the people in distress, at 23:49h we managed to reach them. They told us that they were 11 travellers, of which 3 men, 2 women and 6 children, on board of a fiberglass boat, their engine was still working but they were running out of petrol. At 00:30h our shift team called and emailed the Maltese Coastguard and alerted them about the case. We passed on all the information we had collected, including the GPS position of the boat in distress. In the meantime, the travellers called us back twice first saying that a ship was next to them observing them and then telling us that the ship was leaving. During the rest of the night we were no longer able to reach neither the travellers nor the Maltese Coastguard who was not answering our calls. At 07:20h of the next morning we managed to speak to the Maltese coastguard who however, refused to give us any information on a possible rescue operation. Around 10:00h we called the relative that first contacted us, asking if he had contact with the travellers, he told us he had not spoken to them. However, at 10:55h the relative called us back and told us that he had spoken to the travellers; they told him that in the early morning they had been approached by the Maltese Coastguard who asked what kind of help they needed, as the travellers said they needed fuel, the Maltese Coastguard provided them with fuel and told them to continue to Italy. After still being unable to establish contact with the travellers at 13:08h we called the Maltese coastguard who again refused to give us any information. Fortunately, in the afternoon, at 17:00h the relative of one of the travellers called us to inform us that he had spoken to the travellers and they had arrived by themselves to Sicily.