Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 18th of November 2020
Case name: 2020_11_18-AEG726
Situation: 25 people crashed onto the Turkish coast, 24 rescued by the Turkish
coastguard, 1 missing
Status of WTM Investigation: Ongoing
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case:
On 18 November relatives reached out to us about a group of 25 people stranded in Turkish territory Aegean. We reached out to the group. They told us that there were five women, 12 men and eight children. They had been at sea for nine hours before their boat crashed. They were cold, tired. They were stranded. They were under the impression that they were on an island in the Aegean, but from the positions that they gave us it would appear that they were back on the Turkish mainland. We explain to them how to contact the Turkish police.

At around 18:40h CET the group got back in touch. They had contacted the Turkish authorities, but nobody had come. They asked us to call the turkish authorities to put pressure on from our side. We could not get through to the Turkish police, but we contacted the Turkish coastguard. They finally launched a search operation. Just after midnight, the Turkish coastguard told us that they had rescued 24 people.

We were later contacted by the travelers who told us that one of their friends had been lost in the woods and that two people had died. The investigation is ongoing and we will update this report with any further information.