Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 12th of December 2015

Case name: 2015_12_12-AEG155
Situation: 2 boats in distress near Samos and Rhodes, 2 groups stranded on Kastellorizo and Farmakonisi/Leros, all saved
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Saturday the 12th of December 2015 the Alarm Phone was alerted to two boats in distress near the Greek islands of Samos and Rhodes. One boat arrived on Samos independently and one boat was rescued to Rhodes. Two groups stranded on Farmakonisi and Kastellorizo and were picked up after much delay.

At 5.40am the Alarm Phone received a WhatsApp message informing us about a boat whose engine had stopped northeast of the Greek island of Samos, in Turkish territorial waters (case 1). As we could neither reach the travellers via phone nor via WhatsApp and had no further information we decided together with the contact person not to immediately call the coastguard. At 7am the travellers sent us a direct message, but just stated ‘hello’. Afterwards they did not further react to our messages or calls. At 8.30am our contact person informed us that the travellers had arrived at Samos 10 minutes earlier. He promised to forward any further information to us and at 9.15am he finally confirmed that the whole group had safely arrived.

At 6.45am we were informed about a group of travellers who had stranded on the Greek island of Kastellorizo (case 2). After some failed attempts we talked to them several times and obtained further information. We learned that they were 55 people, including 30 women and 12 children. Their clothes were wet, it was very cold and they were not able to move on as they had landed on a very rocky beach. They had called the coastguard many times but no one had picked up their calls. At 8pm we called the port police on Kastellorizo and only got the answer that the people should walk to the next police station. We insisted that they are not able to do so and that they have to be picked up. After a while we could convince the person on duty to take the coordinates and repeated the exact number of people. Afterwards we informed the travellers about our talk with the port police and asked them to keep us updated on any change of their situation. At 8.50am we talked again to the travellers. No one has arrived so far and some travellers were injured while trying to climb the rocks. They had tried to call the emergency hotline 112 but only reached Turkish authorities. At 9am we again called the port police and were told that the travellers have to wait, but that a rescue vessel is on its way. In another call at 11am we were again told that the travellers have to wait and that a vessel will arrive in one hour. Only at 1pm we were able to talk again with them. They told us that a rescue vessel had arrived 30 minutes earlier but had to leave again because of the rocky coast. They were told that another boat will arrive soon. At 1.20pm we talked to the port police again. They confirmed that the first vessel was not able to land and that the people have still to wait. At 3pm the port police informed us that a vessel was arriving at the travellers place at that time. Finally, at 4.30pm, the travellers confirmed to us that they had been picked up by the local police.

At 10.20am a contact person sent us a photo of a traveller on the Greek island of Farmakonisi who had lost consciousness (case 3). We asked if this person belongs to the group who had already stranded on the island the days before, but the contact believes that there had been new arrivals. We asked the contact person to urge the travellers to call the emergency hotline 112 in case of unconscious travellers. At 10.45am we called the responsible port authorities of Leros. The person we spoke to was very uncooperative and just stated that the travellers have to call 112 by themselves. At 11.40am we wrote an e-mail to the Leros Solidarity Group and asked if they have any information on newly arrived travellers on Farmakonisi. At 12.15am another contact person from Leros informed us that all travellers had been transferred from Farmakonisi to Leros.

At 4.25pm the Alarm Phone was called by the support network United Rescues with respect to a boat east of the Greek island of Rhodes (case 4). The boat was not in distress, but apparently some travellers were panicking. We asked the network to keep us updated. At 11.40pm the informed us that the boat has been rescued and all travellers were saved.