Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 9th November 2021

Case name: 2021_11_09-CM621

Situation: Around 50 travellers in distress in the Central Med, arrived safely to Lampedusa.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary: On Tuesday the 9th of November 2021, the Alarm phone shift team received a direct call from a boat in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea. Onboard were 48 travellers, including a pregnant woman and two children, who were travelling on a blue and yellow wooden boat. The travellers told us that it was raining and they were cold and several of them were sick. They had left the previous day from Zuwara, and had now rund out of fuel and were therefore unable to move on. We managed to get their GPS position, and immediately alerted all relevant rescue authorities to the distress situation. We stayed in touch with the travellers and could follow how their situation deteriorated as wind and waves increased and the boat began to take in water. None of the travellers had life jackets. We updated the rescue authorities via email with the GPS positions of the travellers as well as their situation, however both the Italian and Maltese coastguards remained unwilling to confirm that they would coordinate a rescue operation, claiming not to be the competent authority. The travellers informed us that they had also tried reaching the Italian coastguard themselves but without success. In the night, we lost contact to the boat. The following day we learned via relatives that the travellers had arrived safely to Lampedusa.

Tweets about the case: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1458089884225245191