Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – December 18th 2020
Case name: 2020_12_18-AEG735
Situation: 24 people survived a shipwreck, two women rescued South East of Lesvos
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary
In the morning of December 18th Alarm Phone was alerted to a case of 27 people, mostly women and children, in urgent distress. The family member of people on the boat who informed us of the case reported that their boat had hit the rocks and the whereabouts of four people were unclear. The relative had attempted to communicate with the Greek coast guard but had been unsuccessful. We were forwarded a telephone number of people on the boat but no GPS position. We tried to establish contact to the people on the boat but remained unsuccessful. At 09.54h CET we informed authorities who copied the information but denied knowledge of any matching case on their side. We followed the call up with an e-mail. The relative who informed us of the case forwarded a GPS position and informed us that the four people lost at sea had very likely died in the shipwreck. We forwarded this information to authorities at 10.29h CET. Upon calling authorities in Greece at 10.40h CET and 13.20h CET the operator told us they had no news.

At 17.38h CET Piraeus Port authority were continuing to search for the distress case but had no news. Media reports suggest that 24 people had survived a shipwreck South East of Lesvos, one woman from Somalia had died in the incident, two women rescued and brought to Mytilini hospital, and one man missing, the SAR operation was ongoing. Survivors were taken to Kara Tepe, in the South of Lesvos.

Twitter Chronology:

14.01 CET https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1340281152205180931

Media reports:

https://www.ekathimerini.com/260481/article/ekathimerini/news/migrant-woman-drowns-off-lesvos-two-rescued

https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/29230/woman-drowns-off-lesbos-during-boat-crossing

https://www.amna.gr/en/article/514680/Three-Somali-women-missing-at-sea-off-Lesvos-found--one-dead-Afghan-man-missing