Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations - 17th of July 2015

Case name: 2015_07_17-AEG22
Situation: 15 Syrian travellers disoriented and in distress on Symi Island
Status of WTM Investigations: Rescue assumed
Place of Incidents: Aegean Sea, Symi Island

Summary of the Cases: On Friday the 17th of July 2015, the shift team of the Alarm Phone was contacted at 1.30pm by a group of travellers that was already on land but lost on Symi Island, Greece. There were 15 people in total, 6 women, one of whom as pregnant, 6 men and 3 children. Two men, one because of old age and one who got injured when falling off the vessel, needed immediate medical attention. They had also run out of food and water and asked for urgent help. Later on they told us that they had called various rescue numbers, without success. They were able to pass on their current position via WhatsApp. We then reached out to the local police station on Symi Island. They hung up on us twice, saying that they did not speak any English. We then forwarded several emergency numbers to the travellers and also contacted the UNHCR Greece.

A day later, in the morning, the travellers were still at the same place and asked for help as no one had come to their rescue. Afterwards, contact to them could not be re-established. About an hour and a half later, we called the Symi port authorities who said that they found a group of Syrian travellers who had been transferred to the local police station. At the police station, they confirmed this but it could not be conclusively verified that this was the group in question.