Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 16th August 2019
Case name: 2019_08_16-AEG558
Situation: 6 travellers, including 2 small children, rescued in Greece, near Lavara, after having crossed a landborder.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegea Sea

Summary of the Case: In the evening of Friday the 16th of August, at 7 pm CEST, the Alarm Phone was alerted to a group of 6 travellers, including 2 children, who were stranded on the Greek side of the border, near Lavara. Our shift team immediately called the travelers who told us that they had a three-months old infant with them. They were very cold and exhausted and were lacking food, water and clothing. We called the police in Didymoteicho who told us that we should inform the border police. The border police, however, only spoke Greek and hung up on us. We called the police in Didymoteicho again and forwarded them the information, which they agreed to pass it on to the responsible authorities. We also informed UNHCR. At 9 pm a Greek-speaking team member called the border police and passed on the distress case. They told us that they would send a car to pick up the stranded travellers. We were in constant contact with the travellers who were worried, wet from the rain, and cold. As the situation was very difficult for the travellers, especially for the small baby, at around 11 pm we called the Didymoteicho Hospital and asked to send an ambulance; they replied that there was no ambulance station in town. We were advised to call the emergency number. As this could not be done from outside Greece a doctor from the hospital agreed to do so himself. We were later given an ambulance service number that could be called from abroad. We called this number but were told that they could not take GPS coordinates as they did not have the means to read them. At half past midnight we spoke to the border police again who informed us that they had been looking for the travellers but that it is a very difficult area and they could not find them. They told us to advise the travellers to walk towards Lavara. We passed on the GPS location of Lavara to the travellers which was almost 5 km away from their location. At 2 am the travellers informed us that they had not moved. During the rest of the night we were no longer able to establish contact with the travellers. The following morning at 8.30 am the border police told us that they might have located some people but did not give further information. At 10 am the border police confirmed the rescue.