Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 2nd January 2021
Case name: 2021_01_02-CM340
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 75 travellers in the Central Med; intercepted and brought back to Libya.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of case: On Saturday the 2nd of January 2021 at 22.02 CET, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a boat in the Central Mediterranean sea carrying 75 people, including 10 women and five children. The travellers had departed from Sabratha, Libya, at 03.00 the same day on a rubber boat and only a few of the travellers were carrying life vests. We were not able to establish direct contact to the boat, but we knew that the weather conditions were getting worse in the area. At 22.51 we sent an email to the Italian coastguard with a copy to UNHCR and several search and rescue NGOs forwarding all the information we had. At 00.51 we managed to reach the travellers who told us that water was entering the boat and they were in urgent distress. Over the next many hours we attempted to obtain a GPS position from the travellers, but this proved to be very difficult as the communication with the boat was difficult. When we finally received a position in the early hours of the morning we passed it on to the Italian coastguard with the information that we were unsure about the validity of the position, as it did not seem to fit with the place and time of departure. In the mean time our shift team was able to recharge credit to the travellers phone, allowing them to stay in contact with their relatives and the Alarm Phone. At 08.54 we received a position through a relative, showing that the travellers were in international waters, which we again forwarded via email.
At 13.30 we received information from the relative that the boat had been intercepted by the so-called Libyan coastguard and that the travellers were being taken back to Libya.