Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 19th September 2021

Case name: 2021_09_19-CM568

Situation: 162 travellers in distress in the Central Med, rescued to Italy according to relative.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the case: On Sunday the 19th of September 2021 late in the night, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a boat carrying around 162 travellers in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea. The travellers had left from Sabratha, Libya, the same morning at around 02.30 CEST and the relative had lost contact to the boat at 07.00 CEST. They were travelling on a blue wooden boat. We were forwarded a partial position from this time, which we were never able to confirm. We attempted to call the travellers many times over the coming days but were never able to reach them. At 01.57 CEST we sent an email to all relevant rescue authorities, forwarding the information we had. The following day we had several calls with the Tunisian coastguard and the so-called Libyan coastguard who informed us about different rescues and interceptions conducted that morning, however, none of those exactly matched the boat we had been alerted to.

Later in the afternoon we were told by the relative that the travellers had been rescued to Italy, but we were never able to confirm their arrival with any authorities.