Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 22nd December 2021

Case name: 2021_12_22-CM656

Situation: Around 40 travellers in distress in Maltese search and rescue zone, probably arrived to Lampedusa.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the case: On Wednesday the 22nd of December 2021, the Alarm Phone shift team received a direct call from a boat in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea. Onboard were around 40 travellers, including four children and four women of which one was pregnant. They had left on a green wooden boat and told us that they had almost run out of fuel, and therefore expected that they would not be able to continue much longer. We managed to get their GPS position, showing that they were within the Maltese search and rescue zone, and immediately alerted all relevant authorities to the distress of the travellers. Online, we spotted two merchant vessels in the vicinity of the last position we received from the boat in distress, and informed the authorities about this, urging them to coordinate rescue. In addition, we attempted to reach out to the shipping companies owning these vessels, reminding them of their duty to assist in cases of distress. However, all rescue authorities we called were unwilling to give us information about any ongoing search and rescue operatio. In the meantime, we stayed in touch with the travellers, and were thus able to forward their updated positions to the authorities. We also learned that the medical situation onboard was deteriorating, an that the pregnant woman had started to bleed.

Although we never managed to receive a response from the authorities, we later learned that the travellers most probably were amongst a group that arrived to Lampedusa.