6/11: 9 boats in distress near Agathonisi, Samos, and Lesvos, and 2 groups stranded on Glaros‬‬ and Ro

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 6th of November 2015
Case name: 2015_11_06-AEG121
Situation: 11 cases, near Agathonisi, Samos, Ro, Lesvos, Glaros‬‬
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Friday the 6th of November 2015, the Alarm Phone was alerted to 11 cases in the Aegean, that is, to 9 boats in distress near Agathonisi, Samos, and Lesvos, and to two groups, stranded on Glaros‬‬ and Ro. In one case, the travellers reported that a person had died on board, but we could not verify this information. The two stranded groups were picked up and brought to Greece. Four of the boats in distress were rescued by the coastguard (one by the Turkish coastguard), in the other cases we could unfortunately not get a final confirmation of their rescue.

At 3am, we received a Facebook message about a boat on distress carrying 35 persons between Agathonisi and Samos (case 1). We could not reach the boat to check on their situation, but informed the Turkish coastguard about the case, who promised to send a boat to check. We did not get a final confirmation of the rescue, but also received no other information about the case neither form the contact person, nor the travellers.
Between 3 and 4am we were alerted via WhatsApp to three other distress cases in the vicinity of Agathonisi and Samos. At 3am we were alerted to a boat carrying 45 travellers east of Agathonisi that had stopped moving four hours earlier. It was reported that one person had died on board, while another person was seriously ill, however the coastguards later said that this information was not true (case 2). At 4am we were alerted to an urgent distress case north of Samos, involving a group with several young children, who were freezing (case 3). A few minutes later, we received a message about another boat in the same area, carrying 46 persons, who had been at sea for more than five hours and who were in a deplorable condition. (case 4) In two of the cases, we were told that the Turkish coastguard was already informed, but not willing to help. We reached out to the Turkish coastguard immediately, but only an hour later, at 5:11am our calls were answered. We forwarded the information we had concerning the three cases. They said that they knew about case 2 and 3, but they denied that there was a dead person on board of the boat and explained that the boat was floating on a fish farm in the open sea. They reassured us that they would take care of the case. Unfortunately, in case 2 and 3 we never reached the travellers so that we neither got a direct report of their situation nor a final confirmation of their rescue. In case 4 we eventually reached the travellers on Friday afternoon, and even though the communication with them was difficult we understood that they were not on a boat (anymore).

At 4:44am we received a direct call from a boat in distress north of Agathonisi with about 40 to 43 persons on board (case 5). When we reached the Turkish coastguard at 5:11am and told them about cases 2-4, we also informed them about the fifth case. A few minutes later, we received an updated position from the travellers, which we wanted to forward to the Turkish coastguard, but they hung up on us. At 5:40am the travellers sent us a video from a boat that was approaching them. It was a boat from the Greek coastguard, who rescued them and brought them to Samos.

At 5:13 we received another call about a boat in distress, carrying 25 persons, south of Agathonisi this time (case 6). The person who called us was a contact person and told us that the boat was having technical problems. A few minutes later, he wrote back, saying that the Turkish coastguard had come to rescue them and brought them back to Turkey.

At 8:50am we were alerted via Facebook to a group of travellers stranded on the Greek island Ro (case 7). We reached out to the travellers, who told us that they were 45 persons with almost half of them children and one person in a wheelchair. They explained that the captain of their boat had taken all their belongings and had abandoned them on the island. We informed the Greek coastguard about the case, but since the person on duty was not very cooperative, we decided to also inform the UNHCR. Our interlocutor of the UNHCR promised that she would contact the local UNHCR representative and the coastguard in Kastellorizo about the case. At 11am, we got the confirmation that the group had been rescued to Greece.

At 10.12pm, we received a call about a group of 12 travellers stranded on the small, uninhabited island of Glaros, near Agathonisi (case 8). The port authorities of Agathonisi told us that they could not send a boat until tomorrow. We then called the Greek coastguard and they promised to contact the emergency service. The next morning, at 7.43am, the port authorities in Agathonisi confirmed that the stranded group on Glaros had been picked up. We could not get a final confirmation from the group however, as they did not respond to our calls.

On Friday, the Alarm Phone was also contacted in 3 other cases. One case concerned a boat north of Samos with 36 persons on board, who had run out of fuel and faced high waves. We called the Turkish coastguard, but neither heard again from them or the travellers. On Friday afternoon, we were informed about a boat in distress north of Lesvos, but did not have to intervene, as the boat was saved a few minutes after the alert and the safe arrival in Greece was confirmed. On Friday night, at 11.30pm, we were called by another support organization about a distress case in the Aegean with no coordinates, as the travellers had no smartphone. We advised them to tell the travellers to call 112.