Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 5th February 2021
Case name: 2021_02_05-CM358
Situation: 130 people in distress off the coast of Libya, fate unknown
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the Case:
At 06:26h we were contacted by a boat in distress. The travellers on the boat were panicking and were not able to give us clear information. We received an unclear position but we were not able to establish the situation on board. We continued trying to contact the boat and were able to have brief, but inconclusive conversations with them. It appears the boat had about 130 people on board, including 14 women, some of whom were pregnant, and 22 children.

By 09:00h it became clear that the boat was out of fuel and that the people were in need
of rescue. We passed on what information we had to the maritime authorities and to the so-called Libyan coastguard.

At 10:01 we received our last phone call from the boat. The travellers were able to give us a clear position. We passed that information to the authorities and to the so-called Libyan Coastguard. We were unable to reach the boat or make contact with the so-called Libyan Coastguard. At 14:25 we put out the following target="_blank">tweet:
SOS! ~130 people in distress off Libya!
Earlier today, we were also alerted by about 130 people in distress off Libya, including pregnant women and many children. They were screaming and clearly in a severe distress situation. We lost contact about 2h ago, and worry about them.

We have no further information about the boat.