Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 12th December 2020
Case name: 2020_12_23-CM335
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 65 travellers in distress in the Central Med, arrived to Lampedusa
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of case: On Wednesday the 23rd of December at 19.45 CET the Alarm Phone shift team received a direct call from a boat in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea, carrying around 65 travellers, including a pregnant woman and three babies. The travellers had left from Zuwara the previous evening at 20.00 CET on a grey wooden boat. They gave us their GPS position, which showed that they were already in the Maltese search and rescue zone, close to Lampedusa. Their engine was still working, but they informed us that they were running out of petrol. Our shift team was able to upload credit to their satellite phone, enabling them to continue communicating whilst in still distress at sea.
At 20.09 CET we alerted both the Italian and Maltese rescue authorities to the distress of the travellers by phone, forwarding all the information we had been able to gather. In addition, we forwarded all information via email.
At 20.47 CET we published a tweet, alerting the public to the ongoing distress situation:
BREAKING: Boat in distress south of #Lampedusa! A boat with about 65 people, incl. children, reached out to us this evening. They fled from #Libya & are in #Malta SAR. They say they're running out of fuel & need rescue. Authorities are informed. Rescue is needed immediately!

At 21.35 CET we reached the travellers again, and managed to get their updated GPS position. They also told us that their engine was still working, and that especially the small children on the boat were suffering from sea sickness and dehydration. After this point, we were never again able to establish contact to the travellers. We tried to call the Maltese coastguard, but were for a long time not able to reach them. Finally, at 22.30 CET we reached them and passed on the position, first on the phone and immediately after via email. However, they refused to give us any information about ongoing search and rescue efforts, as did the Italian authorities when we called them soon after. In addition to the rescue coordination centres, we passed on the position to the local rescue authorities on Lampedusa at 22.50 CET. At 00.21 CET we called the authorities on Lampedusa again, and understood that the travellers had not yet arrived to the island. Meanwhile, Italian and Maltese authorities continued to refuse us any information.

During the next day, however, we were able to establish from different sources that a boat matching the description of the one we had been alerted to had arrived to Lampedusa in the morning.