Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 2nd of January 2016

Case name: 2016_01_02-AEG174
Situation: First death in the Aegean Sea in 2016; 6 boats in distress near the Greek island of Lesvos, Pasas, Agathonisi and Samos, one two years old boy drowned
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Saturday the 2nd of January 2016 the Alarm Phone was alerted to 4 boats in distress on their way to the Greek island of Lesvos and Agathonisi and to two groups of travellers stranded on the Greek islands of Pasas and Samos. All of them were rescued, but during one rescue operation a two years old boy went overboard and drowned. He was the first victim of the European border regime in 2016.

At 0.22am a contact person forwarded a voice message of 44 travellers in distress north of the Greek island of Lesvos to the Alarm Phone via WhatsApp (case 1). We called the travellers at 0.25am and learned that their engine had stopped and that there were many women and children on board. Immediately afterwards we informed the Greek Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Piraeus via phone and e-mail and forwarded the GPS position of the boat in distress and the travellers’ phone number. At 1am the contact person called us and told us that he had informed the Spanish lifesavers of Pro Activa, who promised to rescue the travellers in distress. At 2.45am we reached the travellers again via phone and learned that they had been rescued and had safely arrived on Lesvos.

At 1.40am we received a WhatsApp message from a contact person, alerting us to a group of 12 travellers who had stranded on the tiny Greek island of Pasas, east of Chios (case 2). The Chios Solidarity Network had previously informed us, that their sailing boat was patrolling in this area in order to pick up stranded travellers from tiny islands east of Chios. We tried to reach this group via phone and Facebook, but without success. In the following 30 minutes several further contact persons alerted us to the same group on Pasas. At 2.50am we were informed by one of them that the group had been picked up. Finally, at 4.30am a member of the Chios Solidarity Network confirmed to us, that they had rescued this group together with a second group of 11 travellers and had transferred them to Chios.

At 3.50am a contact person forwarded the GPS coordinates and phone number of a boat in distress to us, which was heading towards the Greek island of Agathonisi, with 40 travellers on board (case 3). We tried to call the travellers several times and reached them at 4.05am. They confirmed that they were at sea and in need of help. Thus, at 4.08 we called the Greek coastguard and sent an e-mail at 4.10am, in order to alert them to this case and to forward the GPS coordinates and phone number of the travellers in distress. At 4.23am we received updated coordinates of the boat and realized that they were still moving towards Agathonisi. We informed the coastguard accordingly. In the following hour, further contact persons informed us about this case and forwarded updated coordinates to us. However, we were not able to re-establish direct contact to the travellers again. At 5.48am the Greek coastguard called us and told us that they had followed the boat on its way to Agathonisi but that the boat had arrived independently. We were told that only one woman had to be rescued while all others managed to reach the shore by themselves. Furthermore, the Greek coastguard asked us to confirm that all travellers were save, as they were not sure if anyone went missing. As both phone numbers of the travellers were still not reachable, we asked our contact person for confirmation. At 11.50am one contact person wrote to us on Facebook that he received confirmation that the travellers had arrived on the Greek island. However, two other contact persons reported to us that during landing one child went overboard and drowned, while many other travellers were injured. Later on it turned out that not only the Greek coastguard but also the speedboats of the private rescue organization MOAS (Migrant Offshore Aid Station) were involved in a rescue operation with respect to this boat, which had slammed onto the jagged rocks of the shore of Agathonisi (source 1). The dead child was a two years old boy named Khalid, whose body was later on discovered by local fishermen (source 2). He was the first victim of the European border regime in 2016.

At 7.50am a contact person alerted the Alarm Phone to a boat in distress south of the Greek island of Lesvos, with 30 people on board, mostly women and children (case 4). After several unsuccessful attempts we were able to talk to the travellers at 8.10am and learned that their engine had stopped and that they were in urgent need of help. We called the Greek Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Piraeus immediately afterwards and also provided them with the GPS position and phone number of the travellers in distress via e-mail. At 9am we called the Greek coastguard again in order to monitor the rescue operation. We were told that the Greek rescue vessel saw the boat but that it was again moving in the direction of Lesvos. Apparently, they were not in distress anymore. We forwarded this information to our contact person and asked for confirmation. But in the following hours we did not obtain any information from the contact person and were not able to re-establish contact to the travellers themselves. However, at 2.30pm the contact person confirmed to us via WhatsApp that the travellers had safely arrived on Lesvos.

Around midday we were informed about another boat in distress on its way to Lesvos and received their GPS coordinates and phone number from a contact person via WhatsApp (case 5). We called the travellers, about 50 persons including 25 women and 14 children, who were already panicking. They urged us to immediately alert the Greek coastguard, what we did via phone and e-mail at 12.15am. At 12.30am the Greek coastguard called us back, informing us that a rescue operation was ongoing and that they had found the travellers in distress.

In the evening of this day, at 9.40pm we received a message via Facebook, informing us about a group of travellers who had stranded on the northern shore of the Greek island of Samos (case 6). We called the travellers at 9.42pm and learned about a group of 7 persons and one child. We urged them to call the international emergency hotline 112 and asked them to provide us with a WhatsApp contact. Afterwards, they sent us their GPS coordinates and we provided them with the phone number of the port authorities on the island of Samos. At 10pm we called the Samos port authorities ourselves and were asked to call the local police, in case the travellers were on land. Thus we called the local police on Samos at 10.10pm who in turn asked us to urge the travellers to call 112 directly, in order for the authorities to obtain their GPS position. After a while of discussion the officer agreed to take the coordinates from us, however, we nevertheless also forwarded the number of the local police to the travellers. At 10.25pm the travellers told us that they had called the police and provided them with their WhatsApp number. In the following hours we stayed in contact with both the travellers and the authorities on Samos and at 0.10am the port authorities confirmed to us that a rescue vessel had started. Finally, at 2.25am the travellers informed us that they had been picked up and transferred to Samos harbour.