Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 26th of January 2016

Case name: 2016_01_26-AEG194
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 5 cases of distress in the Aegean Sea near Lesvos, Samos and Pasas
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases:On Tuesday, the 26th of January 2016, the Alarm Phone was alerted to 5 cases of distress in the Aegean Sea, near Lesvos, Samos and Pasas. In all cases the safe arrival of the travellers could be confirmed. In one case, a group of 12 travellers, stuck between rocks off the Turkish coast was rescued by the Turkish Coastguard. In two cases the boats had trouble with their engine, but managed to start it back up and to reach Lesvos without any assistance. In one case travellers were stuck on Pasas, from where they were picked up and probably brought to Chios. In the last case, the Greek coastguard saved travellers near Samos.

Case 1: At 2:38am, we received two distress calls about the same case: a group of 12 women and children stuck between rocks off the Turkish coast near Dikili. We could not reach the travellers directly and were not able to talk to the persons who had contacted us about the case. As we could not talk to the travellers and had a position that was 2 hours old we decided to wait until further notice. At 5am, we eventually decided to check with the Turkish coastguard, who confirmed that they had saved a boat with 12 women in the same area, who were stuck between rocks.

Case 2: At 3:07am we received a second alert via WhatsApp about a boat in distress near Mytilene. The engine of the boat had stopped working half an hour earlier. At 3:18am we had direct contact with the travellers, who confirmed that their engine had stopped working and who asked us to call the coastguard. We asked them to send us their position, but they did not have internet. We reached out to Greek coastguard, who already knew about the case and who had sent help. At 5:21am, we checked with the Greek coastguard. They told us that they had saved about 300 persons from 4 different boats in the area, but could not confirm whether the boat in question was among the ones saved. A few minutes later, we received a WhatsApp message from the boat telling us that they had arrived in Mytilene safe and sound as they had managed to start their engine back up.

Case 3: At half past six in the morning, we got a distress call from travellers in an overloaded boat north of Lesvos. They were about 70 passengers on board. They wanted to know where they were and we told them that they were in Turkish waters. They told us that the boat was still moving. At 10.45am they arrived safely in Lesvos.

Case 4: At 3pm, a contact person alerted us via Facebook to a group of 10 travellers (8 adults and 2 children) who had arrived on Pasas island, half an hour earlier. We reached out to the Chios Port Authority, who informed us, that a Frontex-boat was underway to pick up the group.
At 4pm, out contact person confirmed that the group had been picked up.

Case 5: At ten thirty in the evening we received the last alert of the day. Several contact persons informed us about a big wooden boat with 50 travellers in distress, near Samos. We tried several times to reach the travellers, but without success. At ten to 11pm, we informed the Greek Coastguard about the case, as we had located the boat in Greek territorial waters. At half past 11pm, one of our contact persons working on the case from the solidarity group United Rescue, forwarded us via WhatsApp updated coordinates from the boat. We also managed to establish contact with the travellers ourselves via WhatsApp receiving the latest coordinates. They told us that theit boat was not sinking, but had troubles with the engine, that broke down. We forwarded the news to the Greek Coastguard, who said that they had sent a boat to search for the travellers. A few minutes later, United Rescue informed us that a Coastguard boat had reached the travellers. About one hour later, the boat started the rescue operation.