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

Case name: 2015_12_20-AEG162
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 13 distress cases in the Aegean, near Lesvos, Rhodes, Pasas, Samos, Leros, Pitta, and Oinousses‬
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Sunday, the 20th of December 2015, the Alarm Phone was alerted to 13 distress cases in the Aegean. In all but two cases the rescue/ safe arrival of the travellers could be confirmed. 6 cases concerned boats in distress on the way to Mytilene, Lesvos: Three of those boats reached the island finally without assistance, two were rescued by the Greek Coastguard and one we lost the contact with. In three other cases, travellers had stranded on different Greek islands, from where they were picked up: In one case, 16 travellers had stranded on a rocky beach of Rhodes during the night from Saturday to Sunday, where the Port Authority picked them up on Sunday morning. In another case, 70 travellers had stranded on Pasas, where the Port Authority of Chios picked them up and in a third group of stranded who had landed on the small island of Pitta, were rescued by the Port Authorities of the next bigger island, that is Kalymnos. Two boats in distress near Samos and one boat in distress near Leros where all rescued by the Greek Coastguard. In one of the Samos cases, the travellers reported that they had been threatened by another boat. A boat in urgent distress near the Turkish coast, on the way to Oinousses, was rescued by the Turkish Coastguard. All travellers were brought to Turkey, but following the incident, two children died in a Turkish hospital.

Case 1: At half past midnight in the night from Saturday to Sunday, we were alerted to a boat in distress near Lesvos with 35 passengers on board. The contact person told us to call the Turkish Coastguards, as the boat was still in the Turkish Search and Rescue Zone, however, when we called the travellers, they told us that their boat was still moving. Two other contact persons informed us about the same case. We lost contact with the travellers, but our contact persons were still in touch with them. One contact person told us at about 5am that the travellers were safe, an information, which another contact person confirmed on Sunday morning.

Case 2: At 1:12am, a contact person called the Alarm Phone about a group of 16 travellers, with many children among them, stranded on Rhodes. We reached out to the group. They were trapped by rocks, but had already informed the police 40 minutes earlier. The police had promised to pick them up, but had not arrived yet. At 2am, we called the Port Authorities on Rhodes, who knew about the case, but that it was difficult to pick up the group, because their position was hard to access both from sea and from land. We then called the travellers again, telling them that help was underway, but that they would have to be patient, as the spot was difficult to access. We also informed the contact person. At 3:11am, we called the Port Authorities again. They said that they had to wait with the rescue until dawn, as they had to go there by boat. Again we forwarded the information to the group. At 7.34am, the travellers contacted us, because they were still stuck between the rocks. They had also called the police a couple of times, they said. We checked with the Port Authorities, who told us that they were about to reach the group. At 9.30am the travellers confirmed that they had been rescued by the Port Authorities.

Case 3: At 1:49 am, we received an alert via Facebook about a group of 17 travellers with 4 children and one 'helpless man', who had stranded on Pasas 3 hours earlier. We managed to establish contact with them. They told us that they were freezing, but that they could not move away from the beach, because they had several children and one member of the group did not have legs. At 2:38am we call the Port Authority of Chios. The person on duty was already informed and promised that help would arrive within half an hour. We called the group to pass on the information. The contact person on the island sent us their coordinates. At 4am the Port Authorities had still not arrived. At 9am, we called the travellers again. They told us that more people had arrived and that they had made it to a church. The disabled man was in company still on the beach. The Port Authorities were informed about this and told us that they were looking for a boat to pick up the people. At 9.45am we received another alert to people stranded on Pasas. The contact person told us that there were about 70 people stranded on the island. At 11.30am the Port Authorities assured us that help would arrive soon, as they had found a boat. At 1.16pm several contacts confirmed to us that all persons had been picked up from Pasas.

Case 4: At 1:50am, we were alerted via WhatsApp to a boat in distress, carrying 35 travellers, on the way to Samos. We reached out to the people on the boat, who were in panic and asked us to inform the Greek Coast Guard. At 2.16am we called the Coastguard, who already knew about the boat and who had already sent a boat. We passed the information that help was underway to both the people in distress and the person who had alerted us to the case. A few minutes later, the contact person confirmed to us that the Coastguard had rescued the travellers.

Case 5: At 3:30am, we were contacted directly by a traveller via WhatsApp. He told us that he was travelling to Lesvos and urgently needed help. We asked him if we should call the Turkish Coast Guards since the boat has not reached Greek waters yet. Our contact person did not give a clear answer. In the background, we heard that everything was calm and that the engine was running. After this first contact, we sent the traveller several WhatsApp messages and tried to call him back a few times, but he never responded. We decided to not get active in this case.

Case 6: On Sunday morning, at 6:47am the solidarity network 'United Rescues' contacted us, because they had lost contact with a boat. The boat was on the way to Lesvos. The Turkish Coast Guard had already searched for the boat, but without success. The solidarity group wanted us to call the Greek Coastguard. We first reached out to the travellers - and reached them. They told us that the boat was not moving anymore and that they had already called the Greek Coastguard. We promised to call the Greek Coastguard as well and to call them back later. At 8am we talked to the Greek Coastguard, who promised to check on the case. However, when we called them back to find out more, they never picked up the phone. At 11:32am, we turned to the Coastguard of Mytilene, who told us that they were working on two cases in the North of Lesvos, but they could not tell us anything about 'our' case. We then sent an Email to the UNHCR and to the solidarity group, who had first contacted us. At 2:43pm, the rescue of the travellers was confirmed to us.

Case 7: At 7:31am we received a Facebook alert about stranded travellers on the island of Pitta, near Kalymnos. We could not reach the travellers, but talked to the Port Authority of Kalymnos. They already knew about the case and promised that the rescue operation was about to be launched. They also told us that it was difficult to reach the island. We called them back one hour later and again two hours laters. The first time they did not pick up the phone, the second time, they told us that they were busy rescuing the last people form the island. We tried to verify this information with the travellers, but they did not respond. At 2.32pm we called the Port Authority again, who said that all travellers had been picked up from Pitta.

Case 8, 9 & 10: On Sunday morning, between 8:30 am and 10.15am, we were alerted to three distress cases of boats on the way to Lesvos.
In all cases the travellers arrived safely on land. In at least two cases the Coastguard rescued them. In the first case we received a direct call from the boat in distress. Our contact person on the boat recounted that they were not moving, mainly because of the weather conditions. He sounded stressed and wanted us to call the Coastguard. We forwarded their telephone number and the information to the Greek Coastguard. At 9.30am, the travellers informed us that they could continue their journey to Mytilene. At 10:50am, they confirmed that they had arrived safely.
At 9:29am, a contact person informed us via WhatsApp about a boat in distress (leaking boat) carrying 40 persons. We immediately phone the Greek Coastguard, who promised help. At 9:57am the Greek Coastguard called us back to ask for the number of the travellers. At 10:30am, the contact person informed us that the travellers were rescued by the Greek Coastguard.
At 10.15am we learned about a third boat in distress near Mytilene. We could not reach the travellers, but talked to the Coastguard, who had just sent a boat to search for the other boat (case 2), we had called them about. At 10.40am our contact person told us that he had also lost contact with the boat, but a few hours later, at 2.48pm, he confirmed to us that the travellers had been rescued to Greece by the Coastguard.

Case 11: At 7pm, several solidarity groups informed us via WhatsApp about a boat on the way from Turkey to Oinousses in urgent distress: the boat was leaking and some travellers had fallen into the water. The travellers were not reachable. We immediately reached out to the Turkish Coastguard, as the boat was still close to the Turkish coast. They knew about the case already and asked us to call back in 30 minutes. When we called them back they told us that they were searching for the boat. At 8pm, the Turkish Coastguard confirmed that they had found and rescued the boat. At 10.50pm, one of our contact persons informed us via WhatsApp that 2 travellers on the boat had died. Apparently our contact got this information from the Coastguard. To us the Turkish Coastguard said that they could not pass on this kind of information, but they said that they brought several travellers to hospital. On Monday morning, one of our contact persons, who had also followed the case, called the hospital and found out that two children had died following the incident. The hospital confirmed this information to us as well. The travellers, who had not been brought to the hospital, were at the police station in Cesme, Turkey.

Case 12: At 7.20am, a contact person alerted us on Facebook to a boat with about 40 passengers in distress one the way to Mytilene, Lesvos. We informed the Coastguard, who promised to look for the boat. At 8.30 we called the Coastguard again, who claimed that a friend of the travellers had confirmed their safe arrival in Greece. Our contact person later confirmed the safe arrival as well.

Case 13: At half past 11pm, we received another Facebook alert about a boat with 9 travellers in distress in Turkish waters, on the way to Samos. We could not reach the travellers. The Turkish Coastguard was already informed, but our contact person told us to call them as well. Throughout the night and Monday morning, we tried to reach out to the travellers, but could not reach them and also received no further notice from the contact person. On Monday afternoon the Turkish Coastguard told us that the Greek Coastguard had rescued the boat. At 1.20pm our contact person confirmed the rescue to Greece.