Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 27th of September 2015

Case name: 2015_09_27-AEG83
Situation: 4 distress cases in the Aegean Sea, near Chios
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Sunday the 27th of September 2015, the Alarm Phone was alerted to 4 cases of distress in the Aegean Sea, near the Greek islands of Chios.

At 6.15am, the Alarm Phone received a WhatsApp message about a 1st distress case involving a vessel with 40 passengers on the way from Turkey to Chios, Greece. Our contact person told us that the travellers were in urgent distress, as the engine of the boat had stopped and water was coming into the boat. We immediately called the Turkish coastguard, who already knew about the case. They told us to call back in three hours. At 6.50am our contact person told us that the Turkish coastguard had still not arrived. We called the Turkish coastguard again and put pressure on them to rescue. Activists from Nawal Soufi's collective also worked on the case. At 11am the Turkish coastguard informed us that they had seen a boat near the position we had given them, but that it had already passed on to the Greek side, so that they had contacted the Greek coastguard. They said that the boat had most probably been saved to Chios, Greece, however, we were not able to get into contact with the people and have not been able to get a final confirmation for their rescue.

Later on Sunday morning, at 9.30am, we were alerted to a 2nd distress case by a contact person, calling from Saudi Arabia. She told us about 30 travellers in distress in Turkish waters, near Cesme, moving into the direction of Chios, Greece. The travellers had left Turkey at 7am, but were now hardly moving, as the engine had stopped working. Neither we, nor the contact person could reach the travellers, but the supporter asserted that rescue was urgent, no matter from which side. At 9.50am, we called the Turkish coastguard. The person on duty was very cooperative and told us that there were two ongoing rescue operations in the same area. They were going to look for the vessel with 30 travellers. We forwarded the news to the contact person. At 11am the Turkish coastguard informed us that they had seen the vessel in question, but that the travellers had made their way back to the Turkish shore. The coastguard had not intervened, but had called the port authorities to pick up the boat. At 11.40am the contact person confirmed the information given by the Turkish coastguard: The travellers had made it back to Turkey and were safe

At 11.34am, we received a call from a contact person in Norway about a 3rd distress case in Aegean between Cesme and Chios. She forwarded us a position that had been sent three hours earlier, and the information that the boat had been attacked and left without an engine in the sea. She also passed us a telephone number, which turned out to be a wrong number, as we had a man in Istanbul on the phone and not the travellers in distress. We thus attempted to call the Norwegian contact again to verify the phone number, but without success. The Turkish coastguard had meanwhile been informed by another solidarity group. When we checked with the Turkish coastguard later in the day, they told us that they had gone out to the position, but had not encountered a boat. At 10.27pm we received a confirmation via another solidarity group that the travellers had been rescued.

The last alert of the day reached us at 11pm via WhatsApp. A contact person informed us about a 4th vessel in distress at the sea border between Turkey and Greece, carrying about 30-40 persons. They also had problems with their engine. Our contact person got the information from Facebook and was not in direct contact with the travellers. We asked him to inquire about a contact number and to find out at what time the information and coordinates had been posted. At 11.45pm, we informed the Turkish coastguard about the case. Even though we could not provide them with a contact number, they were cooperative and promised to send a boat to the position we had given them. At 1.30am the contact person confirmed that the Turkish coastguard had rescued the vessel. At 6am the Turkish coastguard called us also to confirm the rescue. They had rescued 31 Syrians.