January 2016: One of the deadliest months ever in the Aegean Sea
Alarm Phone Bi-Weekly Report 18th – 31st January 2016
In January 2016, the Alarm Phone witnessed the most deadly month ever in
the Aegean Sea. On a daily basis, reports about capsized boats and
drowned travellers reached us and in several cases the Alarm Phone was
directly alerted to shipwrecks with dozens of fatalities. 257 migrants
drowned in the cold sea while trying to cross from Turkey to the Greek
islands this month and at least 26 travellers died trying to reach
Italy. At the same time, the number of people who successfully crossed
the European border remains very high: in January 2016 more than 60.000
travellers reached Greece. This high number is comparable to the number
of successful sea crossings of last year's summer months (July 2015:
55.000), rather than to the winter months (January 2015: 1.700).
In the last two weeks of this deadly month, the Alarm Phone was alerted
to 80 cases of emergency in the Aegean Sea. In many of these cases we
were able to support travellers to safely reach Greek shores, but we
also witnessed tragic incidents. On Friday the 22nd of January 2016, the
Alarm Phone was informed about a wooden sailing boat with 70 to 100
travellers on board, which had capsized northeast of the Greek island of
Kalolimnos. Only 26 travellers could be saved, while 34 bodies were
found and many more people went missing. One week after this fatal
accident, on Saturday the 30th of January, the Alarm Phone was in
contact with a boat that sank near the Greek island of Samos. According
to a contact person who informed us about this case and whose wife and
children had been on the boat, some people survived the shipwreck, while
others lost their lives.
The Alarm Phone also observed increasing attempts to cross the
Mediterranean Sea via the central route from Libya to Italy again. On
Thursday the 21st of January 2016 we were in contact with a boat in
distress, carrying 500 travellers north of the Libyan coast, which was
rescued. In the following four days, the Italian coastguard rescued 1211
people in 10 different operations. And again, on the 30th and 31st of
January more than 700 travellers were picked up and transferred to Italy
in 3 rescue operations.
Against this background, the Alarm Phone stresses the importance of
activist and civil society groups, who provide direct flight-help and
assistance and struggle together with people on the move to overcome the
European border regime. But we also witness how these actors have come
increasingly under pressure. Many of our friends on the Greek islands
have been subjected to processes of criminalization in the past weeks.
According to Statewatch, this practice might increase in the future:
currently, the Council of the European Union seeks “to equate the
concept of migrant ‘smuggling’ with migrant ‘trafficking’”. [1] This
equation would illegalize some forms of humanitarian assistance and
flight-help and would “potentially criminalize and marginalize NGOs,
local people and volunteers, who for months have been welcoming and
helping refugees and migrants arriving in the EU.”
Finally, we would like to announce the publication of the Alarm Phone
one-year anniversary documentation, which provides information and an
evaluation of the ongoing social struggles in the Mediterranean. The
brochure is available in English. A German version will be published in
the beginning of March (see:
http://alarmphone.org/en/intros/1-year-documentation/)
Summary of the Alarm Phone cases
In the past two weeks, the Alarm Phone was alerted to 84 emergency
situations, 80 of which occurred in the Aegean Sea, 1 in the Central
Mediterranean Sea and 3 in the Western Mediterranean Sea. Summaries and
links to the individual reports can be found below.
Western Mediterranean Sea
On Monday the 18th of January 2016 at 8.02am, the Alarm Phone was
directly called from a boat in the Western Mediterranean Sea going in
the direction of Tarifa/Spain. 10 travellers had left Tangier Med in
Morocco at 3am and asked us to alert the Spanish coastguard. We called
the Spanish rescue organization Salvamiento Maritimo (S.M.) in Tarifa
and urged them to start a rescue operation. We stayed in contact with
the travellers, but at 10.08am we were told that the boat had been
intercepted by the Moroccan Marine (see:
http://watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/430).
On Tuesday the 19th of January 2016 at 7.46am, the Alarm Phone was
called from a Moroccan phone number and alerted to a boat in distress in
the Western Mediterranean Sea. We were provided with a phone number of
the travellers on board and called them immediately afterwards. We
reached them at 7.51am and learned that the boat had left from
Tetouan/Morocco, with 15 persons on board, among them 2 women. The
boat’s engine had stopped and the travellers were not able to move on.
They explicitly asked us to call the Moroccan coastguard (see:
http://watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/431).
On Saturday the 30th of January 2016, the Alarm Phone was alerted to a
push-back between Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. At 4:44 we
received a call from a contact person in Morocco, who connected us to
travellers on a boat. They were 13 men and two women and worried, as
their engine was not working anymore. They had no means to send us their
GPS coordinates, but said that they were at the border to Ceuta. They
asked us to contact the Red Cross, because they were afraid of being
pushed back by Spanish authorities. At 5.22, we called the group to
inquire about more details, but had suffered an illegal pushback: they
had arrived on Spanish soil, but were put on a boat of the Morocco
Marine Royal and brought back to Morocco. (see:
http://www.watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/433)
Central Mediterranean Sea
On Thursday the 21st of January 2016 at 9.46am, Father Mussie Zerai
alerted the Alarm Phone to a boat in distress in the Central
Mediterranean Sea. He provided us with the GPS position and a satellite
phone number of the travellers and told us that there were about 500
persons on board of the boat in distress, including 50 women and 10
children. We communicated with the travellers on board in Arabic,
charged their satellite phone credit and forwarded updated GPS
positions. In the late evening, at 11pm, Father Zerai confirmed to us
that the boat had been rescued and all 500 travellers were saved by the
Italian coastguard (see: http://watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/432).
Aegean Sea
On Tuesday the 19th of January 2016 the Alarm Phone was informed about a
boat in distress on its way to the Greek island of Farmakonisi. After we
had alerted the Greek coastguard, the boat was able to arrive on the
island independently. However, we stayed in contact with the travellers
and monitored how the authorities dealt with the group (see:
http://watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/416).
On Wednesday the 20th of January 2016 the Alarm Phone was alerted to 17
groups in distress on their way to the Greek island of Lesvos, Chios,
Farmakonisi, Pasas and Samos. Two groups had stranded on the islands of
Farmakonisi and Pasas and were transferred to larger islands by the
Greek port authorities. The Greek coastguard rescued 4 boats, while
another 7 boats arrived independently on Lesvos and Chios. 4 boats were
rescued and transferred back to Turkey by the Turkish coastguard (see:
http://watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/417).
On Thursday the 21st of January 2016 the Alarm Phone was alerted to 8
boats of distress in the Aegean Sea, close to the Greek islands of
Lesvos, Kastellorizo and Samos. In all cases the travellers arrived
safely in Greece. The Greek coastguard rescued three boats, while 5
boats reached the Greek islands independently (see:
http://watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/418).
On Friday the 22nd of January 2016 the Alarm Phone was alerted to a
tragic shipwreck northeast of the Greek island of Kalolimnos, in which
at least 34 people died while 26 were rescued and many more went
missing. At the same day the Alarm Phone was in contact with 5 boats in
distress on their way to the Greek island of Lesvos and 4 groups of
travellers who had stranded on the islands of Farmakonisi, Samos and
Pasas. All of them were rescued by the Greek coastguard, local
authorities and independent rescue organizations (see:
http://watchthemed.net/reports/view/419).
On Saturday the 23rd of January 2016 the Alarm Phone was alerted to a
group of travellers, whose boat had crashed against the rocky coast of
the Greek island of Ro. We alerted the Greek coastguard and constantly
stayed in contact with the travellers. Within one hour that had been
picked up by the Greek coastguard and had been transferred to a bigger
island (see: http://watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/420).
On Sunday the 24th of January 2016 the Alarm Phone was alerted to a
group of travellers with motor problem between the Turkish coast and the
Greek island of Lesvos. We contacted both the Turkish and the Greek
coastguard, but in the end the travellers were able to reach the Greek
island of Lesvos independently (see:
http://watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/422).
On Monday the 25th of January 2016 the Alarm Phone was alerted to 2
cases of distress in the Aegean: in one case a group of travellers had
stranded on Samos. Their rescue could be confirmed one and a half hours
after the alert had first reached us. The other alert concerned a boat
supposedly in distress on its way to Lesvos. However, the boat reached
Greece without any assistance (see:
http://www.watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/421).
On Tuesday the 26th of January 2016 the Alarm Phone was alerted to 5
cases of distress in the Aegean Sea, near Lesvos, Samos and Pasas. In
all cases the safe arrival of the travellers could be confirmed. In one
case, a group of 12 travellers, stuck between rocks off the Turkish
coast was rescued by the Turkish Coastguard. In two cases the boats had
trouble with their engine, but managed to start it back up and to reach
Lesvos without any assistance. In one case travellers were stuck on
Pasas, from where they were picked up and probably brought to Chios. In
the last case, the Greek coastguard saved travellers near Samos (see:
http://www.watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/423).
On Wednesday the 27th of January the Alarm Phone was alerted to 11 cases
of distress in the Aegean Sea, near the Greek islands of Lesvos, Samos,
Ro, Chios, and Pasas. However, we only became active in 9 cases. In four
cases travellers had stranded on the Greek islands, of Samos, Ro and
Pasas. In one case on Samos, the travellers were found by the local
authorities, in another case - also on Samos- we lost contact with the
group. The group that had stranded on Pasas joined two other groups of
travellers who were stuck on the island, so that a total of 120 persons
had to spent a night on Pasas, but they were luckily picked up by the
Chios Port Authorities in the morning. The five other cases concerned
travellers in distress at sea. In one case, the travellers made it to
Lesvos without any assistance, in one case they were accompanied by
Médecins sans Frontières and Greenpeace, in one case they were rescued
by the Turkish Coastguard and brought back to Turkey and in one case the
travellers were saved by the Greek Coastguard. The last case possibly
concerned two boats, if so, we could not obtain a final confirmation of
the safe arrival of one of them (see:
http://www.watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/424).
On Thursday the 28th of January 2016 the Alarm Phone was alerted to 6
cases of distress in the Aegean Sea: 3 cases of distress at sea near
Lesvos and several cases of persons stranded on Pasas island. All
travellers could be rescued. The Chios Port Authority picked up all
people who had stranded on Pasas. In two cases of distress at sea, the
Turkish Coastguard rescued the boats and brought back all travellers to
Turkey. In the other case, the Greek Coastguard rescued and brought the
travellers to Greece (see:
http://www.watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/425).
On Friday the 29th of January 2016 the Alarm Phone was alerted to 8
cases of distress in the Aegean Sea: 3 cases concerned travellers
stranded on Pasas, in 2 cases travellers had stranded on Samos, and in 3
cases on the military island Farmakonisi. In all cases, the travellers
were picked up. In one case, they reported however, that after having
picked up from Farmakonisi, they were put in a camp in Kos, with out any
food or water (see: http://www.watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/426).
On Saturday the 30th of January 2016 the Alarm Phone was alerted to 6
cases of distress in the Aegean Sea, near Chios, Samos, Pasas, Lesvos
and Pserimos. In one case the rescue could not be confirmed. According
to a contact person, whose wife and children had been on a boat in
distress near Samos, the boat had sank (probably around or after
1.30am). Some people survived the shipwreck, while others lost their
lives. In the case of distress between Turkey and Chios, the travellers
were rescued by the Turkish Coastguard. A group of travellers stranded
on Pasas was picked up by the Chios Port Authorities in the morning.
Another group had trouble to disembark from their boat close to
Pserimos. Eventually fisher helped them out of the boat and they
confirmed their safe arrival
(see: http://www.watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/428).
On Sunday the 31st of January 2016 the Alarm Phone was alerted to 6
cases in the Aegean, near Lesvos, Pasas, and Kastellorizo. In all cases
the safe arrival of the travellers could be confirmed. One boat that had
trouble with their engine eventually arrived without assistance in
Lesvos. Another boat in distress was rescued by the Turkish coastguard.
All travellers stranded on Pasas were picked up by the Port Authorities
of Chios and those stranded on Kastellorizo were picked up by the local
Port Police (see: http://www.watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/429).
[1]
http://statewatch.org/news/2016/jan/eu-med-crisis-criminalising-civil-society.htm
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