Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 31st August 2021

Case name: 2021_31_08-CM556

Situation: 18 travellers in distress in the Central Med, rescued by local fishermen and brought back to Tunisia

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the case: On Tuesday the 31st of August 2021 the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by relatives to a boat in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea. The group consisted of 18 travellers, including one child of four years, nine men and nine women of which one was eight months pregnant. The travellers had left from Tunisia three days before on a fishing vessel and were travelling without a satellite phone which made communication with the boat impossible. The relatives had also not been in contact with the travellers since their departure. We sent an email to all relevant rescue authorities, forwarding all information we had about the distress case. We then called the Tunisian coastguard who confirmed that they had received our alert but had no additional information about an ongoing search and rescue operation. At 9.34 the following morning we learned from one of the relatives that they had spoken to the travellers who had been rescued by local fishermen after their engine had broken down. The travellers were now back in Tunisia and informed that everyone was safe.