Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 13th of July 2020

Case name: 2020-07-13-CM264
Situation: 57 travelers started from Libya, adrift for 40 hours south of Lampedusa. Italian and Maltese authorities massively delay the rescue and refuse to provide information.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case:
On 13th July 2020 at 01:24h CEST, the Alarm Phone received a call from a group of 57 travelers. They had started from Zawiya, Libya, in the evening of the 11th July, in a wooden boat. They had run out of fuel and were drifting, and water was entering the boat. Our shift team tried to explain them how to read their GPS coordinates on the satellite phone, but the people could not find this option on the phone. We explained to them that for a rescue it was crucial to pass the GPS location to the coastguard. They said they could see lights which they thought were the coast of Lampedusa. For the next half an hour, we repeatedly talked to them, trying to find out their GPS coordinates, but without success. Nevertheless, at 02:00h, we informed the Italian coastguard via phone call and e-mail about the distress case. At 02:58h, we got through to the boat again, informing them we had alerted the Italian authorities. We could not understand them, due to a bad connection. At 04:00h, we talked to the travelers again and they said there had been a boat flashing them with lights. We thought it could be the coastguard and instructed them how to act during the rescue. At 04:28h, we talked to them again and they transmitted GPS coordinates to us, but the coordinates seemed incomplete or in a wrong format. They said they would try to send them via SMS, but we did not receive any. For the next hours, we could not reach them anymore.
At 08:11h, our media team sent out a first tweet about the case. Meanwhile, a relative had gotten in touch with the Alarm Phone, who was also in contact with the travelers. We told him that we needed their GPS coordinates, and he agreed to try and find out. At 09:15h, we reached the travelers. Again, we tried to go through the menu of their satellite phone with them but did not manage to find out their location. We agreed to send them a text message with the instructions and call back then. At 09:50h, we called back, and they said that they could still not find the correct function on their phone. At 11:13h, the relative contacted us and transmitted us a GPS location he had gotten from the travelers. We noticed that he coordinates had an unclear format again but seemed to be close to the Italian Search and Rescue zone. We sent this information via e-mail to the Italian coastguard at 11:40h, including Sea Watch’s search aircraft Moonbird and the Italian UNHCR in the mail-correspondence. We asked the relative to try and clarify the format of the coordinates with the travelers. At 12:54h, he reported that the people had seen an aircraft and that another fishing vessel had stopped by. At 12:59h, our shift team received an e-mail from the Moonbird, also addressing the Maltese and Italian coastguards, reporting that they had spotted a blue wooden boat adrift, carrying 50-60 persons, close to a fishing vessel. It was close to Lampedusa, but in the Maltese Search and Rescue zone. We still could not reach the travelers. At 13:45h, our media team sent out another tweet, making public that the Moonbird had spotted the people in the Maltese SAR zone. At 14:10h, we sent an e-mail to the Armed Forces of Malta (AFM), asking them to coordinate the rescue of the people as they were in their SAR zone. At 14:25h, we called the AFM. They stated to investigate on the case but did not give us details. Neither we nor the relative could get through to the travelers. At 14:40h, we talked to the Italian coastguard, but they only referred us to Malta. At 15:19h, the relative asked if we had news and we told him that authorities were informed. He could still not reach the travelers. At 16:38h, he called us again, very desperate, telling us that he believed the people must be dead by then. At 17:20h, we called the Italian coastguard. They said they were working on the case and asked if AFM were informed. We confirmed this but did not get more information about any rescue measures of the Italian coastguard. At 17:35h, we called AFM. They stated: “We have no information” and hung up. At 18:04h, we received an e-mail from Moonbird, also addressing Maltese and Italian authorities, reporting they had spotted the boat in distress at the same location as five hours before, and that the cargo vessel Karewood Star was standing by. At 18:17h, our media team made this public on Twitter, raising attention on the authorities refusing to provide information. Our shift team could still not re-establish contact to the travelers.
At 22:00h, we called the Italian coastguard, and received the information that they were not coordinating the rescue, because the travelers’ boat was not in the Italian SAR zone. They refused to confirm that AFM were coordinating the rescue. At 22:52h, the Alarm Phone retweeted Moonbirds tweet, in which they described that they had spotted the boat south of Lampedusa, next to a cargo ship and a rescue vessel of the Italian coastguard, and that hours later, the coastguard had left and the boat in distress was still drifting at the same place.
During the night, neither us nor the relative could reach the travelers. At 08:00h, with an online tracking tool, we could see that the Karewood Star had moved away from the last known location of the travelers. At 09:19h, we reached its shipping company and were told that the crew of the Karewood Star had not picked the travelers up, because the Italian coastguard had been standing by. At 09:30h, we called the Italian coastguard and were told that their ship had not picked the travelers up, because they were in the Maltese SAR zone. At 09:45h, we called AFM who stated that they were not taking measures for a rescue of the people, that the boat was still drifting close to Lampedusa and that AFM were coordinating the case with the relevant competent authorities. At 10:52h, we sent an e-mail to Maltese and Italian authorities, the airborne operations of Sea Watch and the UNHCR, pointing out the situation of non-assistance and stressing the need for the people to be rescued after more than 48 hours at sea. At 10:52h, via a tweet, we made this situation of non-assistance from different sides public.
At 13:02h, we spoke to the Italian coastguard, and they repeated that they were still not taking over the rescue of the people, since they were not in Italian waters. At 13:36h, an officer of AFM told us, that he thought they were working on the case, but that it would take time, because they were dealing with several distress cases. Two hours later, at 15:38h, we received the same information from AFM, and they did still not clearly confirm to coordinate the rescue of our case. At 16:25h, our shift team spoke to the captain of the Karewood Star. He confirmed that the Italian coastguard had only observed the travelers’ boat without intervening, stating it was Malta’s responsibility to rescue. At 17:42h, via media reports, we received the information that the travelers had been rescued by Italian authorities and had been brought to Lampedusa.

Twitter chronology:

13.07.:
08:11h – https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1282558364225019911
11:47h – https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1282612683150438403
13:45h – https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1282642239559172096
18:17h – https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1282710877465083909
22:52h – https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1282779893277884419

14.07.:
10:52h – https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1282961095154642946
18:52h – https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1283081861967880193