Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 31st of July 2020

Case name: 2020_07_3-CM276

Situation: 80 people intercepted by the so-called Libyan coastguard, 40 people, including 12 women and 4 children, rescued to Lampedusa

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the Case:

Case 1

At about 18:00 CEST, 31 July 2020 we were contacted by people on board a boat in serious distress. The boat and engine had flooded and they were drifting. There were about 80 people on board. They had left from Sabratah about a day and a half previously. They had been drifting with a broken engine for about four hours by the time they contacted us.

Although we were not able to establish an accurate position, the travellers were able to give a rough idea of the location. As they were in serious distress, we contacted the so-called Libyan coastguard. We received no reply to our email and were not able to reach them on the phone. We also contacted the Italian authorities who took the information. They did not acknowledge responsibility or confirm that they would take further steps. We were particularly worried as 31 July was a national holiday in Libya.

At 19:44 we received an accurate position from the travellers, but we were still unable to reach the purported authorities. We also lost contact the boat around 20:00. We tried to contact nearby merchant shipping but received no reply.

Shortly before 13:30 the next day we were able to reach a purported press liaison officer for the so-called Libyan Coast Guard. He informed us that there was a rescue ongoing. He asked us to phone’s back four hours later. At 18:03 the press liaison officer gave us enough information about the rescue that we were really confident that our boat had been intercepted and brought back to Libya. We hope that the people concerned will be able to escape their nightmare situation soon.

Case 2

Just before 22:00 we were contacted by a friend of some travellers in distress. He told us of a boat that was carrying 40 people including 12 women and four children. We later discovered that four of the women were pregnant. We were given the phone number of the boat, but were not able to get in touch immediately. The friend also passed an up-to-date GPS position of the boat. We tried to contact the Maltese authorities, but as usual they would not answer their phone. We sent them the information in an email, copying in the Italian MRCC, Seawatch’s airborne operations and the UNHCR.

At midnight, facing silence from the authorities, we put out the following tweet:

Tonight, #AlarmPhone has been alerted of a boat in distress fleeing #Libya, carrying ~40 people, including 12 women and 4 children. We lost contact with them 1 hour ago. They are in Maltese SAR zone and running out of fuel. Authorities are informed & should search!

We remained in touch with the boat overnight. We received updates about the travellers position and their worsening health condition. One of the pregnant women passed out. We kept passing the information to the MRCC in Malta, but received no reply. Fortunately for the travellers their engine was still working. Despite the worsening seas, they continued into the Italian search and rescue zone. They reached the Italian zone at about 05:30 on 1 August.

Our 05:30 conversation with the boat was our last contact to the travellers. The Italian authorities would not provide information about steps they were taking. We were hopeful that they were carrying out a rescue. Nevertheless we kept up the pressure on the Italian authorities. We tweeted:

Last contact with the ~40 people in distress was at 5.30, after they entered Italian SAR zone. All the night we tried to reach Maltese authorities, and despite being informed they failed to react. Italian authorities are informed. They need to be rescued and taken to safety now!

At around midday we received confirmation that the people had been rescued to Lampedusa.