Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 20th of October 2015

Case name: 2015_10_20-AEG105
Situation: Alarm Phone working on 4 distress cases in the Aegean Sea
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Tuesday the 20th of October 2015, the Alarm Phone was alerted to 4 cases of distress in the Aegean Sea.

The first case reached us at 2.28am when a Syrian activist collective informed us about 10 people on a wooden boat who had been at sea for several hours with a malfunctioning engine (case 1). Our contact stayed in touch with them regularly and informed us at 3.22am that their position had changed in the meantime. While they had been in Greek waters earlier, the new coordinates showed them in Turkish territory. At 3.37am we were told that they had been pushed-back by a large vessel. We contacted the Turkish coastguards who knew already about the case. For several hours afterwards no new information could be obtained until around 8.30am when the Turkish authorities confirmed that the travellers had been brought back to Turkey and were safe. We sought to follow up on the push-back situation but were unable so far to establish contact to the travellers.

At 6.22am, we were contacted by someone in Germany who informed us about a group on Nera Island/Greece who needed help (case 2). Following his account, there were 53 people on the island who had already informed the Greek coastguards the evening before but had not been rescued yet. At 7.25am we were able to reach the group directly. The person we spoke to confirmed that fishermen had found them and were transferring them to an island nearby. They said that they were fine.

Shortly afterwards, at about 7.39am, we receive several GPS positions and a phone number but no further information (case 3). The GPS position showed that they were moving further toward Lesvos/Greece but we were not able to reach the travellers directly. For hours we tried to contact the vessel but without success.

Around 10am, we were informed about a group of 25-30 people close to Lesvos Island (case 4). We received voice messages from someone on the vessel and at 10.48am one message informed us that they had been rescued by the Greek coastguards. At 11.13am we were told that the people had safely reached Mytilene.