Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 13th October 2021

Case name: 2021_10_13-CM591

Situation: 97 travellers in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea, some returned by the Tunisian coastguard, others rescued by local fishermen.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the case: On Wednesday the 13th of October 2021, the Alarm Phone shift team received a direct call from a boat in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea. Onboard were around 97 travellers, including approximately 40 women and 14 children. The travellers had left from Kerkennah Islands, Tunisia the previous evening at between 20.00-21.00 CET on a blue and white wooden boat. The travellers told us that water was entering their boat and that their engine broke down at 02.00 CET and they had been drifting since. Additionally they told us that several children were sick. We were not able to get the exact GPS position of the travellers, but immediately forwarded the information we had to all relevant rescue authorities. At 12.12 CET we called the Tunisian coastguard who informed us that they were conducting a rescue operation of a boat that matched the description we had given them. We called the Tunisian coastguard several times during the afternoon, and were informed that rescue was still ongoing at 18.40 CET. At 02.35 CET we reached one of the travellers who told us that women and children had been brought back by the Tunisian coastguard, but that some of the remaining travellers had had to pay local fishermen to bring them back to Tunisia. However, all travellers had made it back to land safely.

Tweets about the case https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1448180793386442753?s=21