Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigation – 9th of April 2015

Case name:2015_04_09-AEG7
Situation: People in distress near Crete/Greece
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded (last update 13th of April)
Place of Incident: Gavdos/Greece

Summary of the Case: On Thursday, the 09th of April 2015, the Alarm Phone shift team received a message from Father Mussie Zerai, alerting us to the case of more than a hundred displaced persons from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Syria who had left Egypt on a vessel on the 3rd of April. Following the message, they had stranded on a Greek island and were without food and water. After sending off a distress call in the early hours of the day no one had heard of them since. Many of their families were worried and waiting to hear from them.

Father Zerai asked the shift team to reach out to Greek authorities and passed on the phone number of one of the people in distress. The shift team was able to contact the group and also reached out to a journalist who sought to assist us in the search. In the Greek media news reports emerged that spoke of the arrival of more than 100 refugees on the Greek island of Gavdos, near Crete, and it seemed likely that these were the people the Alarm Phone had spoken to. The news reports stated that the migrants thought they had arrived in Italy when they were rescued at sea, were in a bad physical condition, and would sleep at a school on the island (see source 1 and 2). We were not able to reach the people anymore and informed the UNHCR and the Greek police about the initial information we had obtained.

In the evening, the shift team was able to call the mayor of Gavdos Island in order to verify that the group that had arrived was in fact the group in question. The mayor stated that she was in contact with a group of approximately 180 people from different countries, including Somalia, Syria, Libya and Egypt. She suggested that while doctors were looking after them they would not have enough food to distribute and they were unable to transfer them to Crete, due to bad weather conditions. She said that, from what she knew, the complete group had reached the island. Three people were brought to a hospital on Crete on the coastguard vessel.

The shift team informed the JRCC in Piraeus about the situation and was told that they would seek to locate the people via the phone number that we had passed on. Later in the evening the shift team contacted the rescue centre again and was informed that they had not succeeded to locate the number and that they were only aware of the case on Gavdos. A new article stated in the late evening that the coastguard was searching the sea but had not found anyone else in the water (source 3).

On the 10th of April, the shift team tried to contact the group once again but their phone seemed to be switched off. Moreover, JRCC in Piraeus had no new information. We received the information that a helicopter would bring food and medicine to the island since ferries would not be able to reach the island, due to strong winds.

On Saturday the 11th of April, the people, totaling 157, were transferred from Gavdos to Chania and six of them of Egyptian nationality were accused of trafficking. The 41 minors were transferred to the Police Directorate of Chania. On Sunday the 12th, 101 persons took the ferry to Athens. The minors also took the ferry to Athens and were transported to the Aliens Police Directorate and then to the Amzgdaleza Pre-Removal Centre until the authorities would find a place for them in a reception centre (source 4). Some of the adults slept rough in the streets while others were accommodated by their communities.

The journalist, our contact person, spoke to one of the minors and was told that there had been another small vessel that rammed the larger vessel near Gavdos. Following his witness account, 6 white men on the small vessel then sailed away. However, 6 Egyptians were arrested on the suspicion of trafficking. Two of them, minors, were released on the 14th of April.