Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 25th December 2021

Case name: 2021_12_25-CM662

Situation: 40 travellers drowned in shipwreck off the Libyan coast, five survivors rescued by local fishermen and brought back to Libya.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the case: On Saturday the 25th of December 2021, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of 45 travellers, eight women, two children and 38 men, in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea. The travellers had left from Garabulli the previous evening, heading towards Italy. We were not able to establish a direct contact to the boat, and from monitoring the credit of their satellite phone online we could see that the travellers were also not communicating with anyone else. As we lacked sufficient information about the location and situation of the boat, we attempted reached out to the do-called Libyan coastguard, asking them about interceptions in the area. The following evening we learned that the boat had shipwrecked. Local fishermen had managed to rescue five of the travellers, whilst the rest had drowned. 15 bodies had been retrieved and brought to the morgue in Al Khums. Amongst those who had drowned was a three month old baby. The relative confirmed to us that the shipwreck was the boat they had alerted us to.

We are once again sad and angry to witness how the European external borders kill people on the move, exercising their right to freedom of movement. All our thoughts and solidarity is with the friends and relatives of those who lost their lives in this tragedy and with the survivors who had to endure this traumatic event.