Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 9th of November 2015

Case name: 2015_11_09-AEG124
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 4 distress cases in the Aegean Sea
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Monday the 9th of November 2015, the Alarm Phone was alerted to 4 emergency situations in the Aegean Sea. One group had stranded on a Greek island and was eventually rescued by a Greek police vessel, two groups in distress were rescued by the Turkish coastguards, and one group that had stranded on Lesvos Island was later detected by members of Médecins Sans Frontières.

The first distress alert reached our shift team at 3.16am (case 1). We were informed by a Syrian activist collective about a group of about 40 people, including 2 children, who had stranded on Kastellorizo Island/Greece. They had already called the international emergency number 112 but were unable to communicate with the operator. Our shift team reached out to the police on Kastellorizo which, however, was not available at first and then seemed to not understand English and closed the call. At 3.42am, the people on the island informed us directly about their situation. They were unable to move on, were wet and freezing. Again we tried to contact the police on Kastellorizo and the police officer there did not seem to speak English or was unwilling to do so. We then sent a fax in Greek to the police station, informing them about the group and passed on their GPS position. At 4.08am we reached the group again and informed them that the police had been notified. We then learned that the group had seen a police vessel that, however, disappeared again shortly afterwards. Afterwards, we were not able to get back in contact with the group but a few hours later we found out that they were being picked up by a police vessel.

At 5.18am we were alerted to a vessel in distress between Bedemli/Turkey and Lesvos/Greece (case 2). We were informed about a group of 40 people on a vessel. The engine had broken down and they were already drifting at sea for about 45 minutes. The vessel was still in Turkish waters and after confirming with the travellers that they wanted us to inform the Turkish coastguards, we did so. Despite several attempts, the Turkish authorities could not be reached. Finally, at 5.35am we reached MSRCC Ankara and passed on the details of the case. They asked us to contact them again two hours later. We asked our initial contact person to tell the travellers that the Turkish coastguards were informed. At 7.40am we contacted the Turkish coastguards again and they confirmed that the group had been rescued about 30 minutes earlier.

In the early evening, at around 6.26pm, contact persons informed us about a group of 180 persons (later it turned out to be a much smaller group of 71 persons) on a vessel between Turkey and Limnos/Greece (case 3). Their engine had stopped working and they were drifting already for several hours. Our contact persons asked us to alert the Turkish coastguards. We spoke to the Turkish authorities at 6.47pm and they confirmed that they would investigate the situation. They asked us to call them again two hours later. At 8.53pm, one of the contact persons confirmed that the vessel had been rescued. At 9pm, the Turkish coastguards also confirmed the rescue operation. They were all safe.

At 10pm, we received a Facebook message from a contact person concerning a vessel that had reached the coast of Lesvos (case 4). The group of travellers was disoriented and unable to find a road. We tried to reach the police station in Mthimna but were unable to communicate with them. Our contact person later on informed us that a human rights group had been informed and the group would be picked up in the morning. He also forwarded pictures of the group at 6.10am, showing them around a fire, in wet clothes and with children. For several hours afterwards, no new information about the group could be obtained. At 10am, we were then able to speak to one of the group members in Arabic. He told us that they were 10 adults and 10 children. They were fine but tired as they had walked for hours. Later on, we received the confirmation that they had been found by members of Médecins Sans Frontières.

Additionally at 7.13am, we received a WhatsApp message and when we got in touch with the person she told us that she had been part of a group of 49 people from Iraq who had attempted a sea crossing a week earlier during which 3 people had died. She asked about advice to assure that their next crossing would be safer. We passed on information to her and explained how the Alarm Phone functioned.