Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigation – 15 February 2015

Case name: 2015_02_15-CM8
Situation: 10-12 vessels in distress off the coast of Libya, 2164 people rescued
Status of WTM Investigation: Ongoing (latest information received on the 18th of February 2015)
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Libya

Summary of the Case:On Sunday the 15th of February 2015, at noon, the shift team of the Alarm Phone was contacted by Father Mussie Zerai who had received information on two vessels in distress with hundreds of passengers on board. The migrants had embarked at around 3am from Tripoli and were located off the coast of Libya. With the provided coordinates, the shift team could find the position of the vessels and notified the Italian coastguards at 1pm. MRCC Rome stated that they were working on 12 different cases and knew already about the two vessels in question. They could not confirm rescue and the shift team suggested that it would call again at a later point in time.

The shift team called the boat-people on their Thuraya satellite phone repeatedly but without success. When they did not respond, the shift team sent a text message, asking for their exact coordinates. At around 3pm, the shift team was informed by the coastguards that rescue operations had already begun. In the following hours, the shift team sought to contact the boat-people repeatedly but nobody answered.

The news of the rescue operation started to break in the Italian media and reports appeared that spoke of 10-12 vessels with more than 1000 people in distress off Libya (source 1). The coastguards then also released a video that showed a rescue vessel nearing one of the migrant vessels (source 2). Other news outlets noted also an incident in which men, armed with Kalashnikovs, had threatened the coastguards and demanded the handing over of the empty vessel (sources 3&4).

Following the British newspaper ‘The Independent’, the Italian “coast guard ship Fiorillo and several cutters were sent to the latest rescue, along with four merchant ships and two tug boats which were diverted to join the operation. One navy ship, two police patrol ships and a Maltese vessel had also been mobilised, a coast guard spokesman said” (source 5).

In the hours between 6-10pm, the shift team repeatedly tried to contact the people in distress but the calls remained unanswered. Around 10pm, the MRCC Rome confirmed that they were currently in the process of rescuing but would not provide any further information.

Later on Sunday night it emerged that 2164 refugees had been rescued and brought to Italy (source 6).

On Wednesday the 18th of February, Frontex announced that it would speak to member states and Italian authorities to discuss how to respond to the threatening behaviour shown by smugglers toward coastguards (source 7).