World News Update Alarm Phone Weekly Report 2.-8.11.2015‏

Here another weekly report of the Alarm Phone:

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Stranded in the Aegean – The Alarm Phone received various distress calls
from those who reached Greek Islands and needed immediate support



Alarm Phone Weekly Report 2nd - 8th of November 2015



Between the 2nd and the 8th of November, we witnessed another dramatic,
sometimes deadly, week in the Aegean Sea. Once again, fishermen and
others found bodies floating in the sea or washed up at the shores of
Greek islands[1]. The arrivals on the Greek islands continue to be very
high for the month of November. On most days of the week more than 3,000
and on two days more than 6,000 travellers arrived on the Greek
islands.[2] As those fleeing have no prospect for legal entry and with
the winter months looming, they seize their last chance to cross to
Europe, risking their lives on the dangerous crossing.



Those who survive the hazardous sea-crossings often strand on
difficult-to-access shores of Greek or Turkish islands, some of which
are uninhabited. The stranded travellers sometimes have to wait for
hours or days until they are rescued, which can turn into a
life-threatening situation as they are often wet and weak after their
journey and without much or any food and water. The responsibility for
rescuing stranded travellers is in most cases not clear. At times, the
coastguards claim that they only carry responsibility for persons in
distress at sea. But also in cases of distress at sea, rescue operations
are sometimes not carried out or stopped, because of overlapping and
unclear search and rescue obligations. Most importantly, both the
distress situations at sea and those on land can be avoided. Once again,
the Alarm Phone wants to call for a radical change in European border
politics: Only the possibility to enter Europe through safe ways will
end the deaths in the Mediterranean.



Summary of Cases

In the past week the Alarm Phone was alerted to 60 emergency situations,
59 of which occurred in the Aegean Sea and 1 in the Western
Mediterranean Sea. On some days, the Alarm Phone was alerted to more
cases of distress on land than on sea. Summaries of the cases and links
to the more detailed reports on http://watchthemed.net can be found below.



Aegean Sea



On Monday the 2nd of November 2015, the Alarm Phone was alerted to 6
cases of distress in the Aegean Sea - 3 cases at sea near the Greek
islands Farmakonisi and Lesvos and 3 cases on land, as travellers had
stranded on the Greek islands of Kouneli and Farmakonisi and near
Siğacik, Turkey. In all cases the rescue or safe arrival of the
travellers was confirmed: in four cases the travellers arrived safely in
Greece; in two cases the travellers were picked up by the Turkish
Coastguard.

(see: http://watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/330)



On Tuesday the 3rd of November 2015, the Alarm Phone was alerted to 9
cases of distress in the Aegean Sea and became active in 6 cases of
distress at sea and on land. In one case the travellers who had been in
distress at sea still made it to Greece, in three cases the travellers
were rescued by the Greek, and in two cases by the Turkish Coastguard.
(see: http://watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/329)



On Wednesday the 4th of November 2015, the Alarm Phone was alerted to 11
cases and intervened in 8 cases of distress in the Aegean Sea, near the
Greek islands of Samos, Kos, Lesvos, and Ro and off the Turkish coast
close to Izmir. In all cases, the rescue of the travellers was
confirmed: In five cases they were saved by the Greek coastguard and in
two cases by the Turkish Coastguard, in one case the travellers went
back to Turkey, in one case they never left Turkey, because the waves
were too high, and in one case they reached Greece by themselves.

(see: http://watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/328)



On Friday the 6th of November 2015, the Alarm Phone was alerted to 11
cases in the Aegean, that is, to 9 boats in distress near Agathonisi,
Samos, and Lesvos, and to two groups, stranded on Glaros and Ro. In one
case, the travellers reported that a person had died on board, but we
could not verify this information. The two stranded groups were picked
up and brought to Greece. Four of the boats in distress were rescued by
the coastguard (one by the Turkish coastguard), in the other cases we
could unfortunately not get a final confirmation of their rescue.

(see: http://watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/333)



On Saturday the 7th of November 2015, the Alarm Phone was alerted to 5
cases of travellers stranded on the Greek islands Kastellerizo,
Agathonisi, Ro, and Pserimos. In three cases, the travellers had to
withstand the cold and persevere without food and water for many hours,
but eventually they were picked up. In one case, the travellers were not
in a situation of distress and in another the Greek coastguard picked
them up, without us having to intervene.

(see: http://watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/334)



On Sunday the 8th of November 2015, the Alarm Phone was alerted to 8
cases of distress in the Aegean Sea, in five cases travellers had
stranded on different Greek islands and had to wait for hours in the
cold, without food or water to be rescued. The coastguard was reluctant
to assist in these cases, as they were busy and said that it was not in
their duty to assist persons on land. However, in many cases there were
no other authorities to turn to, as neither the UNHCR nor the Hellenic
Rescue Team could be reached. In three cases, in which people were
stranded, we did not get their rescue confirmed, in one case the
travellers were saved by the local police and in another case by the
Greek coastguard, the 3 boats in distress were also rescued by the Greek
coastguard.

(see: http://watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/335)



Western Mediterranean Sea



On Thursday, the 5th of November 2015, the Alarm Phone was alerted to
one case in the Western Mediterranean. At shortly before 11.30pm we
received two calls from different Moroccan contact person, who informed
us about a case of approximately 50 persons with at least 3 children
among them on a 9meter long pirogue that had left from Morocco two days
earlier at approximately 5am from El Ayoun/ Cabo Boujdour to Canary
Islands/Las Palmas. The contact persons were worried, because the
travellers had called them around 7pm, saying that they were lost. We
could not reach the travellers. We checked on different social networks
and saw that the case was already known within solidarity groups and
that a rescue operation had started already. The Spanish Rescue agency
Salvamento Maritimo on Las Palmas told us that they had been involved in
the rescue operation, but had stopped, as the boat had passed into
Moroccan waters and was now being dealt with by the Moroccan
authorities. We tried several times to get in touch with the travellers,
but without success. We had to wait until Friday afternoon at 2.30pm
until we got a final confirmation that the travellers were safely back
in Morocco.

(see: http://watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/331)


[1]
http://www.efsyn.gr/arthro/pente-nekroi-prosfyges-se-lesvo-kai-agathonisi

[2] http://data.unhcr.org/mediterranean/country.php?id=502