Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 12th of June 2021

Case name: 2021_06_12-CM466

Situation: 100 people started from Libya, among them 74 men, 6 pregnant women and 20 children, reached Lampedusa after 3 days on sea

Status of WTM Investigation: concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case:

On the 12th of June 2021 the Alarm Phone received a distress call by a relative. The person on the phone informed the hotline that he has contact to a blue wooden boat with 100 people, among them 74 men, 6 (pregnant) women and 20 children. They have left from Libya, Sabratha, on 10th of June. He passed a telephone number and a GPS position which located the boat in Maltese search and rescue zone. Accordingly to the caller the fuel was out and water was entering the boat. All attempts to reach the boat failed so we wrote an email at 04:45 CEST to the Italian and Maltese coast guards, as well as to the NGOs Sea-Watch and Pilotes Volontaires and the NGO vessel Geo Barents. In the morning the Alarm Phone had various phone calls with the

travellers who were desperate to be at sea since 3 days and who reported

that some people have died already. An updated GPS position was sent to the relevant actors at 09:42 CEST. In a phone call RCC Malta refused to give information whether they started or will start a rescue operation. The situation worsend over the day. The Alarm Phone put pressure via Twitter and various emails and phone calls to the coast guards and NGOs. Last contact to the travellers was on 13:57 CEST when people screamed into the phone. In the end of the day we learned that vessels from Lampedusa coast guard were active in the area and brought people to the island. We assume that this case is among them.

Twitter chronology:

12th June, 12:15 CEST https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1403657304537505800