29/10: 58 people arrived on Samos, group of stranded travellers rescued to Turkey

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 29th of October 2018
Case name: 2018_10_29-AEG450
Situation: 58 people (including 20 children) arrived on Samos, a group of stranded travellers (including 10 children) rescued to Turkey
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case: In the few hours between the 28th and 29th of October the Alarmphone shift team were alerted to a group of 35 people, including 10 children, who were stranded on a small rocky island on the Turkish coast. Access was very difficult because of the rocks, and during the night the Turkish coastguard slowly rescued the travellers from the island and took them to Turkey. At 5.17am CET our shift team was alerted to a boat in distress which was on its way to Samos with over 50 people (including 20 children) on board. They were accompanied to the port of Samos.
At 11:30pm we were informed of a group of 35 travellers (including 10 children) who were stranded on a small island. Their rubber boat had been torn apart by some rocks. They asked us to call the Turkish coastguard to rescue them. At 11:52pm we contacted the Turkish coastguard to inform them of the case, but they were already aware and were organising a rescue. At 12:36pm the travellers told us that they were being rescued by the coastguard. At 9:20am the contact person informed us that everyone was safe.
At 5:17am we were alerted to a boat in distress carrying 58 people (including 20 children) which was headed towards Samos and whose engine had broken. We saw that the GPS position was in Greek waters, so we passed on the information about the case to the Greek coastguard, giving them updated GPS coordinates as we received them. They were accompanied to the port of Samos and arrived safely.