Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 27th of June 2017

Case name: 2017_06_27-AEG289
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 2 emergency situations in the Aegean Sea
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Tuesday the 27th of June 2017, our Alarm Phone shift team was informed at 2.20am by a contact person about a boat carrying about 50 people, including 20 children, who had departed from the Turkish coast and were moving toward Lesvos Island. Over the next few hours, our contact person passed on updated GPS coordinates to us, showing them in Turkish waters but moving toward Greece. At 4.11am we learn that there was a vessel in the vicinity of the boat-people but we were unable to establish direct communications with them. About an hour later, the boat appeared to have left Turkish territory. At 6.25am we then reached out to the Greek coastguards and passed on the received information. About ten minutes later we were informed by our contact person that the travellers had reached Lesvos safely. In turn, we informed the Greek authorities. We later found out that the UNHCR reported of 34 people who had reached Lesvos on that day, which presumably refers to the travellers in question.

A few hours after being notified about the first boat, the same contact person told us about a second boat with about 50 passengers who were moving toward Samos Island. The forwarded GPS coordinates seemed to show them already in Greek waters and we were told that the boat was in an urgent situation of distress. Unable to reach the travellers directly, we contacted the Greek coastguards at 5.11am and passed on the received information. At 6.25am we spoke to the Greek authorities again and they stated that they were unable to find the boat. At 7.15am, the Greek coastguards contacted us, asking whether we had updates, which was not the case. They speculated that the boat may have been rescued by the Turkish coastguards. At 7.51am and 8.15am they called us again and asked for new information but since we were not able to reach the travellers directly and our contact person could not be reached for some time, no updates could be passed on. At 2.40pm, the Greek coastguard informed us that they had not found the boat and stated that the Turkish coastguards had rescued about 45 people in Turkish waters in that area. We spoke to the Turkish coastguards ten minutes later, and they confirmed that they had carried out two Search and Rescue operations in that area - one boat with 45 people close to Samos and one boat with 50 people further away close to Agathonisi. There were no casualties and the people had been returned to Turkey. At around the same time, our initial contact person confirmed that the travellers were in a Turkish camp.