Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 20th July 2021

Case name: 2021_07_20-CM505

Situation: 21 travellers in distress in the Central Med, intercepted by the Tunisian coastguard

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the case:


On Tuesday the 20th of July 2021 late in the evening, the Alarm Phone shift team received a direct call from a boat in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea. On the wooden boat were 21 people, 11 men and 10 women of who four were pregnant. They told us that the boat had a leak and water was entering. Their engine had also broken down, leaving them adrift. From their GPS position we could see that they were inside the Tunisian search and rescue zone, and we therefore immediately alerted the Tunisian coastguard to their situation via email, forwarding all the information we had. At 00.06 CEST we called the Tunisian coastguard who confirmed that a search and rescue operation was ongoing. We stayed in touch with the travellers, and were able to send updated positions to the Tunisian coastguard during the early hours of the morning. At 01.01 CEST we last spoke to the travellers who were still adrift, saying that they could see two vessels in the distance that they were trying to signal. After this point, we could no longer reach the travellers. Only later in the morning at 08.21 CEST did we manage to reach them again. They told us that they had been brought back to Tunisia. We called the Tunisian coastguard who also confirmed that the 21 travellers had been rescued close to Sfax in the early hours of the morning.