Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 20th January 2022

Case name: 2022_01_20-CM011

Situation: 52 travelers in distress in the Central Med, rescued by the Italian coastguard and brought to Lampedusa.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the case: On Thursday the 20th of January 2022, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of 52 travellers, including two minors, in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea. The travellers had left on the 17th of January from Sabratha, and had thus been at sea for three days. They were travelling on a wooden boat and were drifting as they had run out of fuel. They had also run out of food and were hungry and exhausted. We managed to reach the travellers and got their GPS position, showing that they were in the Maltese search and rescue zone. This, we immediately forwarded to the relevant rescue authorities along with all other information we had. The relative told us that they had already alerted the Italian coastguard in the night, but that they had gotten no confirmation that help was underway. After out last communication at 10.52 CET we lost contact to the boat, but at 12.08 CET the relative told us that they reached the travellers who had been rescued by the Italian coastguard. We later learned that the boat matched a group of travellers who had been brought to Lampedusa.