Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 13th of September 2020
Case name: 2020_09_12-CM297
Situation 47 men, 5 women, and 5 children reach Lampedusa by themselves
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the Case:
At around 20:20 CET on 13 September we were contacted by a group of travellers in distress. They had left from Al Zawiya in Libya about 48 hours earlier. The group was made up of 47 men, 5 women and 5 children. The position that they gave us and the composition of the group seem to match a boat that had been spotted earlier that afternoon by Moonbird. As the boat was in the search and rescue zone of the so-called Libyan coastguard, we passed on the information to them. However, as they are far from being a competent authority, we also informed MRCC Malta and MRCC Rome.

Unsurprisingly there was no reaction from any of the Libyan gangs, but fortunately the travellers were able to make good progress. We were able to stay in touch with them and around midnight we realised that they had reached the Maltese search and rescue zone. We passed on the information to MRCC Malta by email, but were unable to raise them on the phone. MRCC Rome refused to give out any information.

Shortly before 02:00 in the morning of 14 September, the travellers told us that their engine had stopped. This information seemed of no interest to the alleged European authorities. We were not able to reach the boat again until about 07:30 in the morning. The situation had not improved much, but the boat was at least still heading north and still afloat. We maintained sporadic contact with the travellers, but were seemingly unable to rouse the Maltese authorities to do their duty. At 09:05, we put out the following https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1305039684125569024 tweet:
~57 people in distress in #Malta SAR since last night!
Authorities were informed about this boat at 22:46 CEST, but still no rescue in sight. The people say the boat was drifting and they ran out of food & water. @Armed_Forces_MT, do your duty and rescue!

We remained in contact with the boat throughout the morning, but as the situation worsened and rescue was not forthcoming trust between us began to break down. It was difficult to communicate the sorry truth that we neither had a boat nor the power to make the relevant MRCC do their duty. They began withholding their position from us. Fortunately, shortly after midday we were able to persuade the travellers that it was worth sharing their position with us.

At about 13:48, the travellers told us that they could see a large blue boat. It was clearly the MANSIA FLOYEN. We attempted to contact ARCC Lisbon as she sails under a Portuguese flag. Unfortunately, they could only refer us back to the uncooperative Maltese Armed Forces. We wrote to MRCC Malta asking them to instruct the MANSIA FLOYEN to assist. We also made contact with the fleet manager responsible for the vessel. He would do no more than promise to tell the captain to keep a sharp lookout.

When we observed the vessel deviating sharply from its course shortly before 17:00 our hopes were raised. About 40 minutes later, when we rang the fleet manager again, we discovered that the boat had been ordered by Malta to search for the travellers, but the search had quickly been called off as no longer necessary.

We were no longer able to reach the travellers, but we later learned through a relative that they had arrived safely on Lampedusa. We were able to tweet:
Although authorities have not informed us about the arrival, we have learned from a relative of someone on board that the ~57 people in distress have safely reached #Lampedusa.