Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 14h of July 2018
Case name: 2018_07_14CM133
Situation: 40 travellers at sea for days without food and water as European as well as Tunisian authorities refuse to let them disembark.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Saturday the 14th of July at 6.35pm, the Alarm Phone shift team was informed by a contact person about a group of 40 travellers who had left on a wooden boat from Libya.. Eight women, including two pregnant women were part of the group. The travellers were in international waters and had reached the Maltese search and rescue zone. They had already been rescued the previous day by the supply vessel Sarost 5. MRCC Tunis as well as the crew of the supply vessel confirmed the position of the migrant boat in the Maltese SAR zone. Both Malta and Italy denied the supply vessel their permission to disembark the migrants in Maltese and Italian harbours.
After rescue, they were provided with some food and brought to the oil platform. Later, the supply vessel took course on Sfax/Tunisia to disembark the people there. The authorities of Sfax, however, refused to allow them to disembark. They were then told to disembark in Zarzis/Tunisia. But since Monday the 16th of July, at 1am, they are also blocked from entering the port there.
The travellers are still in limbo, stuck at sea, not allowed to disembark.
The Alarm Phone is still following the case closely, demanding that the people are transferred and allowed to disembark in a safe port in Europe.
See our press release about the case here: https://alarmphone.org/en/2018/07/18/press-release-migrants-rescued-in-distress-in-maltese-search-and-rescue-zone-illegally-transferred-to-tunisian-territorial-waters/?post_type_release_type=post