Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 27th June 2021
Case name: 2021_06_27-CM486
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 32 travellers in distress in the Central Med. We never found out what happened to them.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean
Summary of the case:

On Sunday the 27th of June 2021, the Alarm Phone shift team received a direct call from the boat in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea. They told us that they were 32 people, including six women and three children, who had left from Sabratha at 02.00 CEST the same morning. They were travelleling on a blue wooden boat, and their engine was not working anymore, leaving them adrift. Further, they told us that not everyone onboard was equipped with a life vest. They did not have a satellite phone with them, but managed to pass us their GPS position via WhatsApp. At 20.17 CEST we sent an email to all relevant authorities, forwarding all information that we had. At 20.30 CEST we called the so-called Libyan coastguard, urging them to commence a search and rescue operation for the boat. However, they would not give us any information about ongoing efforts to rescue the travellers. In addition, at 20.50 CEST we called the Italian coastguard who confirmed that they had received the information. After this, we were no longer able to reach the travellers.
We were never able to establish what happened to the travellers as they never answered our messages and we had no other way of contacting them. We hope that they were able to return to land by themselves.