Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 04th of July 2016

Case name: 2016_07_04-AEG259
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 6 travellers who had stranded on the Greek island of Samos, rescued
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Monday, the 4th of July at 6pm, a contact person called the Alarm Phone and informed us about a group of travellers who had stranded on the Greek island of Samos. He forwarded their phone number and GPS position to us. At 6.13pm, we called the port police on Samos and forwarded the travellers’ phone number and position. We urged them to pick them up, but they asked us to inform the police on the island. At 6.19pm, another contact person forwarded the same information to us. Afterwards, we called the travellers and talked to them in Arabic. They were two men, one child and three women, one of them pregnant. They were in a bad condition and also asked us to call the police. We called the police on Samos at 6.25pm and forwarded the phone number and GPS position of the travellers. They promised us to pick them up. At 6.40pm, we spoke again to the travellers and informed them that the police would pick them up. They told us that they were in urgent need of water. At 6.58pm, we called the police on Samos again and learned that they were working on the case. At 7pm, we wrote an email to the UNHCR and the Greek police, informing them about the group in distress. At 7.02pm, the travellers called us again and told us that they could see a village and a road, but that they were unable to reach it, because the mountain area was too difficult to pass. We asked them to stay together and to wait for the police. At 7.15pm, another contact person wrote to us via WhatsApp and told us, that he had also informed the Greek police about the group and that they had promised to rescue them soon. At 7.27pm, we called the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) on the island of Samos. They were already aware of the group, but they were not able to go to the mountains in order to rescue them. In the following two hours, we were not able to reach the travellers again, but we sent them a link to the Welcome 2 Europe website. At 8pm, we called the contact person again, who had initially informed us about the group in distress. We informed him, that the police was searching for the group. At 8.05pm, we called the police on Samos again and were told that they had found the group of six people, but that their rescue was still ongoing. At 8.10pm, we informed the contact persons about this. At 9pm and at 9.40pm, we tried to call the travellers again, but did not reach them. Finally, at 9.44pm, our second contact person informed us, that MSF had confirmed to him that the travellers had been rescued and that everyone was fine. The police brought them to the camp on the island. At 10.05pm, we forwarded this good news to the first contact person.