Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigation – 15th of June 2015

Case name: 2015_06_15-CM25
Situation: 3 vessels in distress in Libyan waters, rescued
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea, Libya

On Monday the 15th of June, the Alarm Phone was alerted to three vessels in distress. While, fortunately, their rescue was later confirmed to the Alarm Phone, there were no mainstream media reports about the many rescue operations of that day as well as hardly any official accounts providing information about the rescue operations, possible fatalities and the number of rescued travellers. With the novel EU military mission ‘Eunavfor Med’ approaching, this seems to fold into an official rationale where rescue operations are sought to be not reported, in order not to create a ‘pull-factor’. We from the Alarm Phone oppose this highly dangerous and irresponsible strategy and demand clear public accounts of what is currently going on in the Mediterranean Sea.

Summary of the Case On the 15th of June 2015, at around 5:30am, Father Mussie Zerai alerted the Alarm Phone to a situation of distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea. Following his information, a vessel with approximately 550 people on board, including 100 women and 18 children was in distress with water entering the vessel (henceforth referred to as vessel 1). He passed on a satellite phone number which, however, could not be reached by our shift team. We then reached out to the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Rome who had already been informed about this particular vessel and confirmed that they were searching for it.

At about 7:30am, our shift team received another message from Father Zerai with information about a second vessel in distress (vessel 2). Father Zerai had already informed the Italian authorities and our shift team was again not able to reach the passengers on their satellite phone.

In a phone conversation with the crew of the Bourbon Argos at around 8am, which is the vessel of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), we were informed that they already knew about vessel 1 and confirmed that MRCC Rome had ordered another vessel to conduct a rescue operation. We called both vessels every 10 minutes but contact to them could not be established.

At around 2pm, the Alarm Phone received a third message from Father Zerai about yet another vessel in distress (vessel 3). Neither he nor later the shift team was able to contact the passengers directly. About one hour later Father Zerai received coordinates of vessel 3 which were then passed on to MRCC Rome, MOAS as well as MSF. At 4:38pm, MRCC Rome confirmed to us that an operation was rescuing the passengers of vessel 3.

The Alarm Phone later received the confirmation that all three vessels were rescued.