Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigation – 8th of July 2015

Case name: 2015_07_08-CM31
Situation: Approximately 580 people in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea, rescued
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea, Libya

Summary of the Case: On Wednesday the 8th of July 2015, at around 1pm, the Alarm Phone shift team was informed by Nawal Soufi’s activist collective about a vessel in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea (henceforth referred to as vessel 1). They passed on satellite phone numbers of the travellers and coordinates of the vessel. The boat-people could not be reached and our shift team reached out to the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Rome, who had been informed about this case already, and we passed on further details to them. MRCC Rome stated that they were managing the situation but were not willing to share more information. Our shift team contacted the rescue vessel of Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and was told that they were in proximity to the vessel in distress but required further details about the emergency situation. Despite several attempts, the passengers could not be reached.

At about 3pm, the same activist network alerted us to a second case of distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea (vessel 2). The information that we obtained suggested that vessel 2 had left Egypt 4 days earlier, on Saturday the 4th of July, and the travellers had run out of drinking water. While there was a satellite phone number of the passengers, there were no GPS coordinates indicating the position of the vessel. Our shift team then informed the MRCC Rome about the case. About 2 hours later, we were able to establish a direct contact to the travellers and were informed that vessel 2 was carrying about 280 people, including many women, babies and people in need of medical care. They stated that they had seen a helicopter that took pictures of the vessel. In cooperation with the activist collective, MRCC Rome was informed about these new details. At approximately 6pm, the passengers reached out to us again and stated that they could see two small vessels approaching. We advised them to stay calm and wait for the rescue procedures. On vessel tracking maps we saw that the vessels ‘Northern Jamboree’ and ‘Siem Pilot’ had directed themselves to the vessel in distress.

In the evening, at around 6.30pm, the activist collective that had alerted us to vessel 1 informed us that they had been able to establish contact to the travellers and were informed that they were in the process of being rescued. About one hour later, MRCC Rome also confirmed the rescued of what turned out to be 300 people in distress.