Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 21st of February 2016

Case name: 2016_02_21-AEG214
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 5 distress cases in the Aegean Sea, near Chios, Farmakonisi and Lesvos
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Sunday, the 21st of February 2016, the Alarm Phone was alerted to 5 cases of distress in the Aegean Sea: In 4 cases, travellers were in distress at sea, near Chios, Farmakonisi and Lesvos. In all cases, the travellers safely arrived in Greece, in three cases assisted by the Greek Coastguard. In one case, travellers were on a ferry that was supposed to bring them from Lesvos to Athens, but that had halted for several hours in Chios, due to bad weather conditions. The travellers had no access to food and water for hours. Eventually food and water was provided to them and the ferry continued to Athens.

Case 1: At 11.40pm, several contact persons alerted us on Facebook and via phone to a boat East of Chios. At 20 past mid-night, we informed the Greek Coastguard. One hour later, at 1.15am, we received the information the Greek Coastguard had rescued the boat.

Case 2: One hour after the first alert, at 40 past mid-night, we received a WhatsApp alert about 40 travellers in distress close to the boat of case 1, east of Chios. Apparently, the engine had stopped working, as it had run out of fuel. We reached out to the travellers. The connection was bad, but we understood that they were asking for help. We thus alerted the Greek Coastguard, who promised to send a rescue vessel. At 2.30am the Greek Coastguard told us that they had rescued a boat in the area and asked us to confirm with our contact person on the boat, if this was the boat in question. We called the travellers, who confirmed that the Coastguard had rescued them. We passed on the confirmation to the Coastguard.

Case 3: At 2:42am, we received a phone call from an Austrian number about a boat northeast of Farmakonisi. The contact person told us that he had last spoken to the travellers half an hour ago and could not reach them anymore. He passed us the last GPS position of the boat he had and also gave us the number of travellers on board. We tried to call them, but the phone was off. At 2:47am, we informed the Greek Coastguard about the case. They told us that they had sent a team to search and rescue the boat 10 minutes earlier. One hour later, at 3.44am, we called the Coastguard again. They said that they had been looking, but had not found the boat. We tried repeatedly to call the number of the travellers on board. At 6:30am, the phone was at least ringing, but no one picked up. Our WhatsApp messages were not received. At 9.45am, we called the Coastguard again. They could not confirm that they had saved the boat in question, but explained that they had rescued several boats during the night. At 10.44am, we reached the contact person with the Austrian number, who could confirm that the travellers had been rescued and taken to Farmakonisi.

At 8:20am, we were alerted to a boat in distress east of Lesvos. The contact person told us that the travellers were in need of help, and that he could not reach them anymore. Even though we had no direct contact with the travellers, we decided to call the Greek Coastguard. They promised to send a boat. At 8.40am our contact person forwarded us a new GPS-position of the boat. He told us that the travellers were in distress because the sea was extremely rough. We could see on the forecast that there were strong winds in the area. We passed on the coordinates to the Greek Coastguard. At 10.30am we called the Coastguard again to check on the rescue operation. They confirmed that they had rescued several boats, but again could not confirm in the specific case. At 1.45pm, our contact person told us that the travellers were safe, but that they were not rescued by the Greek Coastguard.

Case 5: At 12:30pm, a contact person informed us via Facebook about a group on the ferry Eleftherios Venizelos. The ship had left Lesvos on Saturday evening and had now been waiting in the harbour of Chios for several hours, due to strong winds. The people on the ferry asked for help, because they did not have sufficient food and water. The shop on the ferry was closed and they were not allowed to leave the ship to buy anything on Chios. The man who called was in desperate need for food and water for his baby. We called the man, but communication was difficult. We figured out that the ferry was not operating as a normal ferry, but to transport refugees from the Greek islands to other places in Greece, like Athens. An Alarm Phone member in Greece told the shift team that the ferry would be in the harbour until 5pm because of the wind. However, she could arrange for the man with the baby to leave the boat to get some water. We also sent an email to the Greek authorities to ask them to provide food and water to the group as a whole. At 4pm, the person, who had first contacted us about the case, told us that the people were fine now, that they had been given food and water. Twenty minutes later, he confirmed that the ferry continued to Athens.