FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Another tragedy is suspected to have occurred on the night of December 19 in the Mediterranean, where 116 people on board a ship carrying migrants drowned, while only 1 person is thought to have survived.
The announcement of the tragedy was made by Alarm Phone , which reconstructed the tragic event.
At 14:00 CET on December 19, Alarm Phone was informed of a boat that departed from Zuwara on the evening of December 18, carrying 117 people.
"According to the information received, the departure had occurred at around 8:00 PM local time the previous evening."
We repeatedly tried to contact the ship via satellite phone, but without success. The coast guard and relevant NGOs were notified, despite the fact that we did not have a GPS position.
When we contacted the Italian Coast Guard, they confirmed receipt of our email, but immediately hung up the call without providing any further information or reassurance.
The so-called Libyan Coast Guard told us on the phone that they had neither rescued nor captured any ships on December 18th or 19th.
"On the evening of December 21, we received information that Tunisian fishermen had found a survivor in a wooden boat. He reportedly stated that he had been on a trip that left Zuwara two days earlier and that he was the only survivor," Alarm Phone reports.
According to his testimony, just a few hours after departure the weather deteriorated significantly, with winds reaching up to 40 km/h.
He was extremely weak and we were unable to get a detailed description of what happened. The survivor was reportedly transferred to a hospital in Tunisia by fishermen.
Alarm Phone has attempted to verify this information, but has not yet been able to fully confirm it.
"We tried to establish direct contact with both the survivor and the fishermen who rescued him, in order to better understand what happened and where the shipwreck occurred, but so far without success."
On December 21 and 22, we called the Tunisian Coast Guard countless times, first to urge them to deploy search and rescue vessels to search for other survivors or to find bodies, and later to request updated information.
Both the so-called Libyan and Tunisian Coast Guards repeatedly told us that they had not transported anyone ashore during these days.
We were also told that the weather, especially during the night between December 18 and 19, was so bad that it was "impossible" to go out to sea.
During the period from December 18 to 21, no ships from Libya arrived on the island of Lampedusa.
The NGOs present in the wider area at the time (Sea-Qatch 5 and R esQ People ), were unable to search for the boat, either because they had left the area before the alleged shipwreck occurred (Sea-Qatch 5) or because they did not sail far enough south to encounter the boat ( R esqP people ).
On December 22, Sea-Qatch's Seabird 3 conducted a search of the area where the shipwreck is believed to have occurred, but found neither survivors nor visible traces of a recent sinking.
In addition, the Frontex aircraft, Osprey 4 (HEX: 4D2376) flew over the area on 20 December, twice on 21 December and again on 22 December and found no trace," the organization said in a statement.
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