Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 28th of September 2015

Case name: 2015_09_28-AEG84
Situation: 7 distress cases in the Aegean Sea, near Samos, Chios and Lesvos
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Monday the 28th of September 2015, around midnight, the Alarm Phone received GPS coordinates of a vessel in distress near Samos Island/Greece through a contact person (case 1). We were told that this was a very urgent situation with some of the 44 people already overboard. We tried to call the group of travellers directly but could not get through to them. At 00.04am, we received new coordinates. Our shift team reached out to the Greek coastguards who noted down the coordinates and confirmed that they had already sent out a vessel to that position. He asked us to inform them if we had news about this case. We were then also alerted by two other contact persons about the same case. One of them also stated that people were overboard. At 1.15am, the Greek authorities informed us that they had just rescued 48 people, close to the coordinates they had received from us. We were still not able to contact the people directly but through our contact persons we finally received confirmation of their rescue at 1.26am.

At 5.16am, we were informed by a contact person about a distress case, again near Samos Island/Greece (case 2). Our contact persons had already reached out to the Greek coastguards but did not have the phone number of the travellers by then. We then got in touch with the Greek authorities at 5.24am and passed on the phone number. At 6.18am, our contact person forwarded a message from the group in distress: ‘no help has come please help our children’. At 6.40am, the Greek coastguards told us that, as far as they were aware, all vessels near Samos had been rescued. We tried to reach the phone of the people in distress again but could still not reach them. Our contact persons had also no news and for hours we did not know whether they had been rescued or not. However, at 2.17pm, we were able to see that they had come online on WhatsApp at 1.21pm, a good indication that they had presumably been rescued or had made it to the island independently.

At 5.31am, we were alerted via WhatsApp to another emergency situation concerning a group of 20 people, including women and children on a vessel near Chios/Greece (case 3). The contact person who informed us asked us to inform the Turkish coastguard to the case. We repeatedly tried to call the travellers directly, without success. At 6.29am we were informed via WhatsApp that the people had been rescued by the Turkish coastguards.

At 7.51am, the Syrian activist collective informed us about another distress situation, this time south of Lesvos/Greece concerning 40 persons, including 6 women and 10 children (case 4). We were able to get in touch with the travellers at 7.54am but communication was difficult as the person on the phone was clearly in panic and had difficulties to make himself understood, also people were screaming in the background. We asked him to directly call the international emergency number 112. We contacted the Greek coastguards and passed on the information about the vessel, including their coordinates. Shortly afterwards we received updated coordinates but when we wanted to pass them on to the Greek authorities they accused us of lying and pretending to possess information we did not have. At 8.27am we heard from the people on the boat that their engine had broken down and that they were now paddling. At 8.50am, we learned through our initial contact person that the travellers had been rescued by the Greek coastguards.

At 10.45am various individuals informed us about the same distress case near Lesvos Island/Greece, involving 55 people (case 5). We received their GPS position shortly afterwards and passed it on to the Greek coastguards at 11.18am. They stated that the vessel was still located in Turkish waters but that, nonetheless, a Greek rescue vessel was nearby. Afterwards, several different GPS positions were sent to us by contact persons and it was not fully clear where the vessel was at that moment in time. We then also informed the Turkish coastguards who confirmed that they would look into the situation. One of our contact persons informed us at 12.05pm that a Greek rescue vessel was approaching the people in distress and their rescue was confirmed at 12.21pm. In turn, we informed all the individuals who had contacted us about their rescue.

At 1.19pm, our shift team was alerted via Facebook about a vessel carrying 35 people in distress (case 6). While no coordinates were given, we received a phone number of one of the people on board. While we once got through to them, communication was difficult. It seemed, however, as if they were not on a boat anymore. At 1.53pm we reached a friend of some of the travellers in Turkey who confirmed that the vessel had been rescued by the Greek coastguards.

At 11.05pm, we learned about 3 people in distress near Chios Island/Greece (case 7). They were already close to the island and they confirmed that when we spoke to them directly. They sent us coordinates but already minutes later they stated that they had reached the island independently and were safe.