Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 4th of February 2017

Case name: 2017_02_04-AEG277
Situation: 45 travellers in distress on their way to Mytilini/Lesvos, one woman dead.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Saturday the 4th of February 2017, at 11.49pm, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a contact person to a group of travellers in distress on their way to Mytilini/Lesvos. The contact person told us that there were around 34 people on the boat (we later found out that the exact number was 45) and that he had been in contact with the travellers 30 minutes earlier, but had lost contact to them. When he last spoke to them, they told him that their boat was sinking. We tried to reach the travellers many times, but were not successful. At 00.46am we called the Greek coast guard, and passed on the information we had. At 2.10am we called the Greek coast guard again. They told us that they had been searching for the boat, but they didn’t find anything. We were not able to get any more information about what happened to the travellers. Our contact person was in contact with the mother of one of the travellers, who was getting desperate as she didn’t have any news from her son. The following evening at 6.30pm we called the Turkish coast guard, and they informed us that they had rescued a boat with 45 travellers the night before, and brought them to Çanakkale, Assos. Amongst them was a 22 year old Ethiopian woman who had died in the boat, as a result of the boat being over crowded, which had caused panic. It took us several days before we could confirm that this was the boat from our case. We further found out, that one person from the boat had been arrested upon their arrival in Turkey, accused of being a smuggler. The rest of the travellers were let out again in Turkey.
Source: http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/egede-multeci-botu-alabora-oldu-1-olu-40356425