Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 21st of September 2020

Case name: 20200921-CM303
Situation: 10 travelers (2 children) in distress 30km south of Maltese SAR zone, brought back to Libya by so-called Libyan coastguard.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case:
On the 21st of September 2020 at 11:44h CEST, the Alarm Phone was called by a group of 10 travelers (among them two children) who had started from an unknown place in Libya, more than 30 hours before. Since the early morning, they had problems with their engine and by the time they called out hotline, people were seasick, and water was coming into their boat. Due to connection problems, communication was difficult, and it took several phone calls to understand their situation. They were very afraid of what the so-called Libyan coastguard would do to them if they picked them up, and they feared being brought back to Libya. At 13:40h, we could receive their GPS location in the Libyan Search and Rescue (SAR) zone, approximately 30km away from the Maltese SAR zone. At that time, they could still not restart their engine and were drifting. At 14:53h, our shift team sent an e-mail to the Libyan authorities, alerting them about the distress case. The so-called Libyan coastguard could not be reached via phone on any official contact number. At 19:45h, we got through to the travelers, but the connection was too bad to talk to each other. At 20:00h, we reached an officer of the Libyan authorities and learned that the travelers had called the so-called Libyan coastguard and passed their GPS data. They confirmed to rescue them. During the night and the next day, we could not reach the travelers anymore. At 16:10h, we talked to the officer again. He confirmed that 10 travelers had been picked up around midnight. The GPS location was the same as the one we had received from the travelers, so our shift team assumed these were the same people.