<b>Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 28th March 2021</b> <i>Case name</i>: 2021_03_28-CM392 <i>Situation</i>: 60 travellers probably reached Lampedusa.  <i>Status of WTM Investigation</i>: Concluded <i>Place of Incident</i>: Central Mediterranean Sea <i>Summary of the Case:</i> In the evening of Sunday the 28th of March around 21h00 CEST, the Alarm Phone was called by a boat in distress carrying approximately 60 travellers, all men. The travellers had departed the previous night from Libya and when they called us they were approximately 30 kilometers from Lampedusa, they were afraid of having to spend another night at sea. At 21h37 we alerted the Italian coastguard by email. At 21h40 we called the Italian coastguard and the officer confirmed reception of our email. At 22h20 we spoke again to the travellers who could see a boat approaching behind them. They also gave us updated coordinates which we immediately forwarded to the Italian authorities. Unfortunately during the rest of the night we were no longer able to reach the travellers. When the next morning our shift team called the Italian coastguard to inquire about a rescue operation we were given no information. Finally, while we did not receive confirmation we believe that the travellers reached Lampedusa as the last position they gave us was very close to Italian territorial waters.

This post was originally published on Watch the Med.