Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 22nd of September 2020

Case name: 20200922-CM304
Situation: 86 travelers (10 women, 4 children) on sea for 4 days, boat deflating in Libyan SAR, interception by so-called Libyan coast guard more than 12 hours after first alert
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case:
On 22nd of September 2020 at 01:15h CEST, the hotline of the Alarm Phone was called by 86 travelers, among them ten women and four children, in distress in the Libyan Search and Rescue (SAR) zone. They reported to have started 3 days before from Al Khums, Libya. They had problems with the engine and their boat was damaged and water entering. At 01:30h, our shift team sent an e-mail to Libyan, Maltese and Italian authorities with the phone number and GPS location of the people. At 01:50h, we tried to call the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC) of Libya, but no one picked up the phone on any official number. At 02:10h, we received a new location from the travelers. It had started raining and people were scared. We sent the update to the authorities via mail. At 02:30h, we talked to the RCC Malta and they confirmed to be aware of our e-mails, but they did not share any information about the rescue operations with our shift team. At 02:55h, we talked to the travelers again. They were running out of fuel and their phone battery was nearly empty. At 04:00h, we received a new location from them. They could see a ship in the distance. We advised them to make light to draw the attention on them. At 04:20h, we sent the update and the info about the ship to the authorities. At 05:00h, the travelers passed us a new location which we sent to the authorities at 05:16h. At 09:20h, we managed to get through to the travelers and talk a bit longer. They reported the number of women and children and that some people were in very bad health condition. A lot of water was entering the boat and they did not want to restart the engine, because this would make even more water enter and the risk of sinking would increase. Everyone was very exhausted and at the same time afraid of being brought back to Libya. At 10:45h, they told us that their boat was deflating more and more. There was an airplane circling above them. This was a Frontex plane. At 11:30h, we updated the authorities about the situation via e-mail and underlined again the need for a quick rescue. At 11:46h, we talked to the travelers and they told us about four people who had jumped or fallen into the water. We could not clarify whether they had survived or drowned. They said that the condition of several people was very bad, and they feared dying. At 12:15h, we talked to the so-called Libyan coastguard. They confirmed to be aware of the distress case but said that no rescue asset had been sent out, yet. They could not give us an estimated time of arrival at the travelers’ location. At 12:31h, we talked to the travelers. People were panicking and the situation on board was getting chaotic. They repeatedly told about the four people who had fallen into the sea. From then on, we could not get through to them anymore. We learned about their interception by the so-called Libyan coastguard through Sea Watch’s monitoring aircraft Seabird.

Twitter chronology:

08:36h CEST – https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1308294099871563776
11:19h CEST – https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1308335217283870721
12:25h CEST – https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1308354279292440576
18:34h CEST – https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1308444568824799238