Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 12th June 2021

Case name: 2021_06_12-CM468

Situation: Around 100 travellers in urgent distress in the Central Med, rescued and brought to Lampedusa

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the case: On Saturday the 12th of June 2021, the Alarm Phone shift team was called by a boat in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea. Onboard were around 100 travellers, including many women and children, six of the women being pregnant. The travellers told us that they had no food or water and that they were drifting as their engine had stopped working. At 10.05 CEST we sent an email to all relevant rescue authorities, alerting them to the distress of the travellers. During the day we stayed in close contact with the travellers and followed as their situation deteriorated and medical emergencies occurred. First, they told us that one of the travellers could hardly breath as he was ill and had no more medicine to treat his condition. An hour later, they told us that they had been out of water for three days and that several of the travellers had started drinking sea water. At 11.55 CEST they told us that one of the pregnant women had started bleeding heavily and they feared she was losing her baby. On top of that, there was a leak in the boat and water was entering. We kept updating the authorities with the GPS positions of the boat as well as information about the situation. However, the Italian coastguard refused to give us any information about any ongoing search and rescue operation and the Maltese coastguard simply did not answer the phone when we attempted to call them. In the evening we learned that the travellers had been rescued and brought to Lampedusa.

Tweets about the case: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1403657304537505800