Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 22nd January 2022

Case name: 2022_01_22-CM017

Situation: 16 travellers in distress in the Central Med, intercepted by the Tunisian navy and brought to Sfax.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the case: On Saturday the 22nd of January 2022, the Alarm Phone shift team received a direct call from a group of 16 travellers, including two women and a child, in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea. The travellers told us that they needed urgent help as their boat was taking in water. As the travellers were panicking, we were not able to get their GPS position or figure out where exactly they had left from. After our initial call, we lost contact to the boat. However, from relatives we learned that the travellers had arrived by themselves to the Miskar oil platform. We immediately informed the Tunisian rescue authorities about this, but they told us that the travellers would be safe on the oil platform and would have to await rescue until the weather conditions improved.
The following morning, the Tunisian rescue authorities confirmed that they were coordinating a search and rescue mission, and in the early afternoon they informed us that the travellers were onboard a vessel of the Tunisian navy and that they were all in good health. In the evening, they told us that they had disembarked in Sfax.