Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations –30th of July 2018

Case name: 2018_07_30-CM136
Situation: 125 travellers from al-Khums/ Libya
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case:

On Monday, 30th of July, at 1:11pm CEST, we were called by a boat in the Central Mediterranean, carrying 125 people, among them 39 women and 5-15 children. The rubber boat had left from around Tripoli/al-Khums at 11pm the night before and was on its way to Malta. In the following hours, we tried to stay in contact with the travellers and to receive the GPS position of the boat. We also monitored and topped up the credit of their Thuraya satellite phone. At 3:49pm we managed to receive a GPS position of the boat. At 4:11pm they informed us that their engine was not working any more. We called MRCC Rome at 4:44pm and passed all information. Shortly after, we were called by the Coast Guard in Lampedusa and we informed them as well. Afterwards we tried to reach the boat again, but couldn’t establish a connection anymore. At 8:07pm we called the Italian Coast Guard in Lampedusa again that informed us that they had passed all information to their headquarter that most probably had informed the so-called Libyan Coast Guard. We then tried to reach the Libyans, but didn’t receive a rescue confirmation. We continuously tried to reach the boat again and to receive information from Italian and Libyan authorities, but we couldn’t find out any further information on the boat.

Conclusions: MRCC Rome refused any responsibility for rescue and also for further communication, the so-called Libyan coast guards were never reachable. And no NGO rescue ship was in the area as most of them are blocked or even criminalized. This case, which we witnessed with Alarm Phone, is only another example for the brutal and deadly EU-strategy, that boatpeople starting from Libya should be intercepted or are left to dying… Shame to Europe!