Alarm Phone Statement 27th of May 2016: The calculated and monitored dying in the Central Mediterranean‏

27/05/2016

WatchTheMed Alarm Phone Statement in light of the current situation in
the Mediterranean Sea and yesterday’s events

The EU and Death at Sea: The calculated and monitored dying in the
Central Mediterranean

Yesterday, on Thursday the 26th of May, it took more than four hours for
rescue vessels to arrive. Four hours of worrying and of attempts to
support the anxious people on board of an overcrowded wooden boat. In a
SOS call at 6.21am, our WatchTheMed Alarm Phone shift team passed on the
GPS coordinates to the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre
(MRCC) in Rome. Shortly before, an emergency call had reached us via a
satellite phone. The caller informed us about two boats carrying 500
people each, among them many Syrian and Iraqi refugees. At 10.31am,
rescue finally approached but an hour earlier, the second boat had
already capsized, within eyeshot. So far it is unclear how many people
drowned or disappeared. MRCC Rome reported in their daily statement
about one capsized boat and 96 survivors. Fatalities were not mentioned.
However, the private rescue boat Sea-Watch, which arrived at the site of
distress in the early afternoon, had to recover bodies of drowned people.

Calculated Dying
Over the past three days, and once again, thousands of refugees and
migrants left the Libyan shores on overcrowded boats and moved toward
Sicily: About 2600 people on Tuesday, 3000 on Wednesday and 4000
yesterday, Thursday. Nobody can still claim to be surprised, least of
all those responsible for EU migration policies. But they refuse to
abolish the deadly visa regime and to open up legal and safe routes. To
the contrary: the Balkan route which migration movements had struggled
to open up last summer, was violently closed down. Among yesterday’s
victims in the Central Mediterranean Sea are now again Syrian and Iraqi
refugees. As a result of the closure of the Balkanroute and the inhumane
EU-Turkey deal, refugees who arrive in Greece are being imprisoned on
the Greek islands with the threat of being deported back to Turkey,
while those on the Greek mainland are left without any perspective of
leaving the country soon. These political changes force refugees onto
the much more dangerous route via Libya.

Monitored Dying
For nearly one year now, the military operation EUNVFOR MED/Sophia seeks
to monitor the Central Mediterranean Sea, between Libya and Italy. Its
central mandate is the combating of the so-called smuggling networks.
These ‘smuggler-hunters’ are equipped with all sorts of high-tech, the
zone off the coast of Libya is amongst the best monitored maritime
spaces of the world. How difficult could it be to send a small
surveillance aircraft hourly along this well-known migration route in
order to locate and immediately rescue refugee boats? Instead, and again
and again, Italian coastguards, private initiatives and NGOs are those
who prevent even worse disasters from occurring at sea. And when they
then transport survivors to Sicily, capacities are simply lacking which
means that situations as experienced yesterday occur, situations that
are apparently wanted by the responsible authorities: the dying at sea
continues. And as long as it is possible, disasters are being concealed,
suppressed or played down in order to avoid renewed public outcries.

We do cry out, once more and time and again about the border deaths of
the past 20 years, and about yesterday’s deaths. If only there were
legal and safe migration routes, nobody would have to die at sea. The
dying at sea is not a natural catastrophe and also no accident. It is,
in fact, the calculated outcome of the EU border and visa regime. The
dying at sea is human-made and already tomorrow, through the opening of
borders and free access to ferries, it could fade into history as a dark
chapter.
The long summer of migration in the Balkans has demonstrated that once
borders are open, there are no ‘smugglers’ anymore. One pays high sums
and takes dangerous paths only when one is forced to do so by Frontex
and co.

A world without borders is possible and both Frontex and the ‘smugglers’
would then have disappeared.
In this sense, we say: Ferries not Frontex

WatchTheMed Alarm Phone (27.05.2016)

Contact: wtm-alarm-phone@antira.info

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Attachment:
Excerpts from the WTM-AP log book entries:

2016_05_25-CM-two boats in distress, direct call
Number of the boat: 0088216….376

5:25am, we received a direct call from a Thuraya number. The person
speaks Arabic so we cannot understand. All we can hear is "Libya" and
"Italy". It sounds like they might be on a boat as there are engine
sounds in the back.

5:34am, Our translator gets back to us and says that the man was talking
about 2 big boats that had left from Libya. Apparently they called the
Italian coastguards but they were not responding. And apparently he
spoke of 1000 people on the boats!

5:40-5.50: We try to call the Thuraya number in different ways but
cannot reach them.
In between we checked their Thuraya credit and it was good, over 70. We
checked again a few minutes later and it had gone down to 69.71.

6.10am: We call the Italian coastguards and we pass on the Thuraya
number. He checks and then says that they have the same number.
Apparently they were called by the boat but had the same problem that we
had: they could not establish their position.

6.16am: their credit has minimally decreased, 69.22 now.

6.17am: We reached the man on the boat. We try to give him instructions
on how to find the GPS position on Thuraya but the call was cut off.

In the meantime, credit has gone down to 62.77

6.20-6.40: We receive more information from the boatpeople:
6.21am: We received their coordinates: N033 Deg 018'014.242 E012 Deg
029'037.940. The man is in panic and says they are about to sink. There
are two boats, one boat is in a bad condition. The boats are metal boats
(but later it became clear that they were wooden boats).

6.29-6.35am: We call MRCC Rome again and pass on the new details and the
coordinates which they take.

6.51am: Credit has gone down to 56.32

6:58: We send an Email to MRCC and others with all details.

7:56am: the people on the boat called us again and we asked them to send
us an update of their position. we receive the new position at 7.58: N33
23'57,062; E12 29'45.553

8:00am: we called MRCC Rome again, we provided them with the new
coordinates.

8:12am: we sent an email to MRCC Rome and all the contacts we have,
asking for urgent help and providing them with the new coordinates

8:19am: we received new GPS coordinates: N033 Deg 025'024.298 E012 Deg
029'052.131

8:21am: Credit on the phone of the migrants on the boats is 41

8:23am: the people on the boats called and told us, one of the big
wooden boats is cracking and water started to fill the boat in the under
level (the boat has obviously two levels), the people are trying
desperately to empty the boat from water. in total there are around 1030
people on the three boats, the boats are made of wood. one of the big
boats is dragging the other, on the small boat are 30 people. NEW: there
are now three boats, because the two big boats, which were our case
already the whole morning, we're crossing a third, small boat with
migrant persons, and they continued to go on together, one big boat
towing the two other boats!!!!

08:30am: we called the Italian Augusta Offshore company because their
commercial boat ASSO VENTIQUATTRO IMO 9235294 is really close to the
boats in distress. They provided us with their operations department
number which could give us the number of the ship Asso Ventiquattro, but
the operation center opens not before 9am, so we have to wait...

8:35am: Credit from the Thuraya-phone on the boat is 39.5

8.35am: we tried calling another boat that is close called MInerva Zen
(there main center is in Ukraine), but the call didn’t go through

8.40am: we called the Malta coastguard. they already know about the
boats and are working on the case. we updated them. they have another 17
cases or so they are working on. they said they are doing their best.
the operator was very stressed on the phone.

8:45am: the people on the boat are calling, they told us one of the
boats just sank, 500 people are in the water and many already died ...

8:47am: the boat people confirmed that we should call Libyan coast
guard, we tried to reach the Libyan Coast Guard. We also decided to call
the Tunisian Coast Guard and explained them the distress situation, gave
them all the infos we have.

09:00am: we call the operational center of the Augusta Offshore Company
and explain the situation. They say that their ship ASSO VENTIQUATTRO
already knows about the case (they were contacted by MRCC rom) and that
it is on his way there now, going to help rescuing the people on the
sinking boat

9.18am: obviously a lot of different "players" are informed about the
case (MRCC Italy in Rome, Malta, Sea-Eye, Sea-Watch, private ships...)
and going to help, but until now the migrants didn't see any ships close
to them.

9.20am: contact to the people on the boat: a lot of people already dead,
our contact on the boat saw people drowning. They asked us where they
should heading to, they're 100 km away from Sabratah on the Libyan Coast
and try to head in direction of Lampedusa. One big boat is broken, the
second big Boat is now leaking too, the small boat is fine, but already
full of people

9:28am: credit of the Thuraya-phone on the boat: 33

9.29am: we informed everybody, staying in touch with the people on the
boat, but for the rest we're helpless

9.48am: we sent an SOS email with updates on the sinking boat:
Hello,
Thanks to everyone who is involved, we are aware that there are more
than 10 boats, so thank you for your efforts.
We have received unfortunate information that one of the boats sank
already around the position N033 Deg 023'057.062 E012 Deg 029'045.553. A
lot of people died. But for sure, there are people who know how to swim
and most probably they can be saved and pulled from the water.
Thank you,
xy
Watch the Med Alarm Phone

09:56am: We called the Libyan coast guard, they were friendly, maybe
because we were talking in Arabic with them, they got all the info and
will help as soon as possible

10:00am: no answer from the people on the boats

10:03am: the people on the boats saw a ship, they estimate the distance
15 minutes away from them, but then the ship disappeared. we asked for
new coordinates and urged them to use whatever objects they have that
can reflect the light of the sun and use it in all direction to help
ships spot them

10:05am: Since a long time we're watching the "Minerva Zen", the Ship
from the ukrainian company, on Vesselfinder.com cruising around specific
coordinates: N33 12 E12 42, looking like searching for something. This
zone is close to the boat-people, but not exactly their latest
coordinates we have. "Asso Ventiquattro", the italian Ship, is obviously
also cruising more or less around the same area like the Minerva Zen

10:06am: credit of Thuraya phone on the boat is 22.6;

10.15am: the people on the boat do not answer

10.18am: The ship CP 324 SAR (search and rescue) is heading down to the
area, now at N 33 deg 32’ E 12 deg 30’

10.31am: at last, we receive a positive Info: we spoke to the boat
people, they just informed us that the small boat was rescued
(corresponding to our contact on the boats by an Italian commercial
ship)!!!!!!!

10.37am: more ships on their way to the latest gps-position of the boats
in distress: ooc tiger, Asso Venticinque, Ringho

11.00am: no answer from the people on the boat; we wrote them an sms
asking for newer position and informing them that they have more credit
now - no answer so far

11.20am: no news from nowhere at the moment - we hope that in this case
no news are also good news, which means the people on the boats are save
at last. Vesselfinder still shows ships roaming around the place of the
boats of our case.