Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 23rd January 2021

Case name: 20210123-CM351

Situation: All coastguards refuse responsibility for 145 travellers in urgent distress in the Central Med, the travellers finally returned to Libya on their own.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary On Saturday the 23rd of January in the early morning, the Alarm Phone shift team was called by a boat in distress in the Central Med. On the boat were 145 travellers, including around 25 women and 25 children. The travellers had left from Garabouli on a rubber boat at 00.45 CET, and sent us a position showing that they were now 50 km off the Libyan coast. In addition they told us that the weather was bad and water was entering the boat, and only some of the travellers were wearing life vests. At 04.25 CET we tried calling the Maltese coastguard, but they did not answer our calls. At 04.31 CET we called the Italian coastguard who took all the information we had. As we still could not get through to the Maltese coastguard, at 04.46 CET we sent an email to all relevant rescue authorities as well as several rescue NGOs. In addition, we tried calling the so-called Libyan coastguard, but we were not able to reach them. We stayed in touch with the travellers during the night, and our shift team forwarded updated positions to the authorities via email whenever we managed to get these from the boat. We were also able to upload credit to the satellite phone of the travellers, allowing them to keep communicating from the boat. At 05.35 CET the travellers informed us that they were now heading south. At 06.05 CET we spoke to the travellers again. They were very distressed and asked for immediate assistance. After this point, we were no longer able to reach the travellers. On marinetraffic we were able to identify the vessel nearest to the last position we received from the travellers, and we sent an email to the authorities urging them to request assistance from this vessel for the rescue operation. At 08.14 CET we managed to reach the so-called Libyan coastguard. They informed us that their vessels were patrolling the area, but had not intercepted the travellers. In later phone calls to the so-called Libyan coastguard we learned that their one big vessel had a problem and was therefore not in use and that the smaller vessels they had were not fit for the weather conditions. The result of this was that the so-called Libyan coastguard was no longer carrying out search and rescue missions for the time being. At 13.16 CET we therefore sent an email to all relevant authorities, including Frontex and rescue NGOs, urging them to intensify search and rescue efforts in the absence of capacities from the Libyan side. During the afternoon, the message remained the same from the so-called Libyan coastguard: that they were waiting for a solution but could not conduct search and rescue with their smaller boats. At 16.30 CET we called the Italian coastguard again. They told us that they were aware of the boat, but did not consider the search and rescue operation their responsibility as the travellers were in Libyan waters. When we insisted that they could intervene in Libyan waters following the lack of Libyan capacities, the Italian coastguard first stated that they were not aware of the situation of the so-called Libyan coastguard and then ended the call. Following this call, we sent another email informing the relevant authorities, passing on the information we had from the so-called Libyan coastguard about their lack of resources to intervene in the distress case.

At 18.20 we finally reached one of the travellers. They told us that they had made it back to Libya on their own. According to the traveller, the Libyan army had been shooting at them when they arrived back to the coast. Most people had been caught and put in a detention centre, whilst a handful of the travellers had managed to escape.

Tweets about the case:

8:14: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1352877072516001793

145 lives at risk off Libya! AlarmPhone was alerted by people in distress who fled #Libya in a rubber boat. The situation is tight and people ask for urgent help. So far no rescue in sight, authorities do not respond! There is no rescue vessel in the SAR zone!

19:15: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1353041786315415552

❗UPDATE:According to relatives the ~145 people were able to return on their own and reached Libyan shore, after the boat broke down! The two other boats are still out at sea and we don't know if they will survive the night! Don't let them drown!!