🔴Four shipwrecks in one week off Libya.
Between 13-20.08, ~900 people on 14 boats called our Alarm Phone. ~100 were returned to Libya, ~540 reached Europe. 100+ people died or went missing. The fate of a further 160 people remains unknown.
Our report: alarmphone.org/en/2020/08/23/…
The first shipwreck (16-17.08), was not just a shipwreck. People were shot at by a group of 5 men, and their boat caught fire. 45 people were killed. Those who did survive are alive only because a local fisherman rescued them. We collected some of of the survivors' voices:
The second shipwreck took place on 18.08. Of the ~95 people on board, just 65 survived. Whilst we were on the phone with the people, a tube burst. After this sound came only silence as we failed to reconnect with the boat. We raised the alarm with all authorities, to no avail.
Through calls from relatives & survivors, we learned of two more shipwrecks.
A THIRD shipwreck was reported by the presumed only survivor of a wooden boat with 40 ppl on board. He said the boat sank off the Libyan coast on 15.08 & everybody drowned. He was rescued by a fisherman.
A FOURTH shipwreck on 18.08 was reported off #Tunisia. 18 people left Jdareya, 3 people drowned, and 15 were rescued by the Tunisian Coastguard, close to Tunisia.
In the above report, we reconstruct the timeline of these tragedies along with the actions taken by Alarm Phone.
Once more, words fail us to describe the wholly avoidable tragedies of the past week. How many more shipwrecks will we have to document before #Europe wakes up to the death on its doorstep? How many more calls & alerts will the authorities ignore? #BlackLivesMatter #safepassage
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