Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 21st July 2021

Case name: 2021_07_21-CM508

Situation: Alarm Phone alerted by relative to 85 travellers in distress in the Central Med, rescued by the Italian coastguard.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the case:


On Wednesday the 21st of July 2021 in the afternoon, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a boat in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea. On the boat was 85 travellers who had left from Sabratha on a wooden boat. When the relative had last spoken to the travellers two hours previously, their engine was no longer working as they had run out of fuel and several people on the boat were sick. At 15.42 CEST we sent an email to the relevant rescue authorities, forwarding all the information we had about the distress case. Despite trying many times, we were never able to establish direct contact to the travellers. At 16.10 CEST we spoke to the Italian coastguard who confirmed that they were aware of the boat in distress.
We learned that an Italian coastguard vessel was carrying out a rescue operation close to the last position of the travellers, and assume that this was the boat rescued by the coastguard. However, we were never able to reach neither the travellers nor the relative to confirm this.