Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 13th July 2019
Case name: 2019_07_13-CM174
Situation: 54 travellers probably intercepted by the so-called Libyan Coastguard, and 14 travellers rescued to Lampedusa by Italian Coastguards.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Saturday the 13th of July we were alerted to two boats in distress. The first boat, carrying 54 travellers was probably intercepted by the so-called Libyan Coastguard. The second boat, carrying 14 travellers was rescued to Italy.

At around 1 pm CEST the Alarm Phone was alerted by a worried relative to a boat in distress that had departed the previous night from Zawiya in Libya. The rubber boat was carrying 54 travellers of which around 10 women some of which were pregnant. A few hours later our shift team was finally able to establish contact with the travelers, however the connection broke down before we were able to obtain a GPS position. After this we were no longer able to establish contact with the people on board to obtain a position. Throughout the afternoon we repeatedly tried to call so-called Libyan Coastguard to try and obtain further information, but they were never reachable. In the evening we saw a tweet by IOM informing about a boat carrying 53 travellers, including 9 women and 1 child, which had been brought back to Libya. We suppose that this could be our case, but we are not sure.

At around 9 pm we were alerted by a worried relative to a boat in distress that had left from Zarzis, in Tunisia, the previous night. The boat was carrying 12 travellers including eight children and one woman and, according to the relative, they were two miles from Lampedusa. Within the next hour we managed to speak with the people on board, on a Tunisian phone number. They told us that they were 14 travellers including 8 minors. Although they did not have WhatsApp, and could therefore not send us a GPS position, they informed us that they were near Lampedusa. This information was probably correct, as they would only have network coverage on a normal phone once inside the Italian SAR zone. We gave the travellers the phone number of the Italian Coastguard and they agreed to call the coastguard directly. Around 10.30 pm our shift team called the travellers back. They informed us that they had tried to call the Italian coastguard but that they were not picking up the phone. We called the Italian coastguard ourselves and passed on the phone number of the persons on board and additionally sent an email with the information we had. One hour later the travellers called us back, worried that that they had not been rescued yet. We therefore called the Italian coastguard again, who told us that they were in contact with the travellers and looking for the boat. For the rest of the night we were no longer able to establish contact with the boat, and the Italian coastguard did not share any further information with us. At 7.30 am the next morning the travelers called us back. They still had not been rescued, and were anxious and exhausted. They told us that they could see the rocks of Lampedusa but that they had no fuel left at all, they were only moving with the waves. They confirmed that they were still in contact with the Italian coastguard. Twenty minutes later we spoke to the persons on board again, who told us that they could see a white boat in the distance. We passed on this information to the Italian coastguard. By 10 am our shift team was no longer able to establish contact with the boat and the Italian coastguard was unwilling to share any information. 15 minutes later we were called by a relative of a traveller who informed us that the boat had been rescued to Lampedusa. Later the Italian coastguard also confirmed that the travelers were safe.