Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 9th of February 2024 

Case name: 2024_02_09-EASTERN MED - 065
Situation: 23 people stranded on Inousses, outcome unclear

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded 

Place of Incident: Eastern Med

Summary of the Case:
In the morning of the 9th of February, Alarm Phone was alerted by a group of 23 people who had landed on the island of Inousses in Greece and provided us a GPS position. Some of the people of the group were in need of medical assistance. We alerted the Greek authorities at 12:15 CET. At this point we could not reach the group.
At 14:09 CET we were able to reach an officer from the Chios Port Authority on the phone, who confirmed the reception of the mail and that they would go to Inousses and look for the people.
At 18:00 CET we called back to see if they had found them. The officer told us they had looked at the position but did not find anyone. We were still unable to get in contact with the group.
At 20:20 CET we called the Inousses Port Authority. The officer on duty did not know of the group. They told us they would go look for them.

We have seen it too often that the Greek Authorities would say that they have looked at the groups position but did not find anyone, only to find the group hours later in Turkish Waters after the Greek Authorities had violently pushed them back, even if they had been already on Greek soil.

So at 00:34 CET on the 10th of February we called the Turkish Coast Guard to ask for incidents in this area, who told us that they had found two boats in the region, one with 20 and the other with 23 people. Since the people were with the police we could not try to match the phone number to see if this were the people we were looking for.

At 08:49 CET we called back the Port Authority of Chios, who now told us that they were not responsible for this case but would send us an E-Mail (which they never did).
At 08:54 CET we called the Coast Guard in Inousses, the officer says they did not find anyone. When we asked if they were still searching they passed us to another person who repeated that they had found no one.

Over the following days we tried to establish contact to the group again but could never do so.