Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 21st of March 2016Case name: 2016_03_21-AEG239
Situation: 2 boats in distress north of the Greek island of Samos; all rescued
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea
Summary of the Cases: On Monday the 21st of March 2016, the Alarm Phone was alerted to 2 groups of travellers in distress north of the Greek island of Samos. We informed the Turkish and the Greek coastguard respectively and in both cases rescue was confirmed afterwards. The first boat had been rescued by the Turkish coastguard and the second by the Greek coastguard.
At 2.30am a contact person alerted the Alarm Phone to a boat in distress northeast of the Greek island of Samos, with 17 people on board (case 1). After several failed attempts, we reached the Turkish coastguard at 2.40am and forwarded the GPS position and the phone number of the travellers. They confirmed to us that they would send a rescue vessel to the boat in distress. At 2.50am we informed the contact person accordingly. At 2.55am we sent an e-mail to the Greek and Turkish UNHCR and informed them about the case. At 3.38am the contact person sent us the latest position of the boat, which we forwarded to the Turkish coastguard immediately afterwards. We were told that the coastguard was working on the case and finally, at 4.11am, the contact person confirmed to us that the travellers had been rescued by the Turkish coastguard.
At 11.45pm of the same day the Alarm Phone received a message via Facebook, informing us about a boat in distress north of the Greek island of Samos (case 2). Although we were not able to speak directly to the travellers, we called the Greek coastguard at around midnight and forwarded the GPS position of the boat in distress. At 0.30am we received an updated position and again forwarded it to the coastguard. In another call at 1.10am the Greek coastguard refused to update us on the situation. However, at 1.22am they called us back and confirmed to us that the people in distress had been rescued.
Last update: 12:10 Apr 09, 2016
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