Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 6th of April 2020
Case name: 2020_04_06-CM237
Situation: Alan Kurdi rescued two boats carrying 69 and 85 travellers and 67 travelers reach Lampedusa independently.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Monday the 6th of April the Alarm Phone was alerted to three boats in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea. Two boats were rescued by the NGO vessel Alan Kurdi and one boat managed to reach independently Lampedusa.

At 07:40h CEST of we were called by a boat in distress that had departed from Zuwarah the previous night. The boat was blue and wooden and was carrying 69 travellers. The travelers were urgently asking for help as water was entering the boat. After receiving their GPS position, at 8:53h we alerted via email the so-called Libyan coastguard and the NGO boat Alan Kurdi. After having lost contact with the travelers, at 11:00h we received the information that the travelers had been rescued by Alan Kurdi, and were all safe.

In the late evening of Monday the 6th of April the Alarm Phone was called by a group of 80 travellers in distress, the boat had departed the previous night from Sabratha in Libya. The boat had run out of fuel and was drifting. Communication with the travelers was very difficult due to connection and language problems as well as due to the general atmosphere of panic of the people on board. After several attempts we received a GPS position. at 20:22h CEST. At 20:45h our shift team called and alerted the Maltese coastguard about the boat in distress, passing on the GPS position and all the information we had, the same was done with the Italian coastguard at 20:53h. At 21:39h we emailed the Maltese, Italian and Libyan coastguards with an updated GPS position. At 21:49 we published the first of a series of tweets informing about the situation. At 23:19h and 00:05h we received updated GPS positions from the travellers, our shift team immediately alerted the authorities via email with the most recent positions. By this time the travellers we really exhausted and scared as the waves were getting higher and they had no more food or water, they were also worried as their phone battery was running low. The situation was really critical. After receiving new coordinates, at 01:05h and 02:37h we again updated the authorities via email, together with the NGO boat Sea-Eye. The travellers told us that at 01:30 they we called by an Italian phone number who asked for GPS positions. At 01:51h our shift team called the Italian coastguard asking for confirmation that a rescue was ongoing, however they did not provide us with any information. In the mean time, we were also called several times by a worried relative of the travellers asking for news, the relative also informed us that three children were on board. The following morning we spoke again to the travellers who told us that the engine had started working again and there was apparently a little more fuel left, they also gave us updated coordinates that we immediately passed on to the authorities. As the boat was in the Maltese SAR zone at 08:22h we called the Maltese coastguard asking whether a rescue operation was ongoing, however the officer that replied refused to give us any information. Similarly, when we called the Italian coastguard we could not obtain any information about a possible rescue. During the rest of the morning we updated authorities via email with GPS coordinates five times. We called the Maltese coastguard more than eight times but either no one picked up or they answered but did not provide any information about a rescue. We also pressured the Italian coastguard to act but with no result. At around 16:30h with still no rescue in sight, we lost contact with the travellers, presumably their phone run out of battery. At 19:00h with still no contact to the travellers, the Maltese coastguard finally told us that they were “working” on the rescue, however they did not specify what this meant. As the hours passed and we were not able to obtain further information on a possible rescue operation, it became clear that despite having been alerted more than 24h earlier, neither the Maltese nor the Italian coastguards had reacted to the distress call. At 23:59h we received the information that a blue wooden boat carrying 67 travellers, including 4 women and three children, had autonomously reached Lampedusa. Although the number of travellers was different from what we knew, we thought that this could have been our boat, we were able to confirm this the following morning through the relative of one of the travellers that had contacted us the previous day.

At 15:20h CEST of the same day, the Alarm Phone was called by a boat in distress carrying 85 travellers, including 2 women. The wooden boat had departed from Sabratha on Libya the previous evening, presumably in a convoy of three boats. The travelers were urgently asking for help as they had no food or water. At 15:41h our shift team passed on this information, including the GPS coordinates, to the so-called Libyan coastguard and to the NGO boat Alan Kurdi. At 16:20 the travelers told us that they could see the supply vessel ASSO Trenta in front of them, the vessel however did not engage in a rescue operation. At 19:22h we were informed that the NGO boat Alan Kurdi had rescued the travellers.