Migrants saved after 'crank calling' Rome pensioner

The 66-year-old, from the city’s Marconi area, woke up to the first call, intended for the Italian Coast Guard’s operations in Rome, at around 6am.

“I could hear the sound of the sea, but I didn’t understand a word of what was being said,” he told Corriere.

“It was someone speaking a little English, a little French. I didn’t understand what he wanted at that time of the moing.”

Not realizing that the person at the other end of the line was a Sudanese man, who was on a flimsy boat crammed with migrants making their way from Libya to Sicily, the pensioner hung up, only to be called again. And again.

Frustrated at not being able to understand the person at the other end of the line, and worried that he was a crank caller, the pensioner alerted police at the nearby San Paolo police station as well as his landlord.

Two officers then went to the pensioner’s home, where the calls were still happening.

At first they too thought it was just a case of phone harassment, but the landlord suspected it could be a call for help, possibly from someone who was about to commit suicide.

Finally, after several more calls, during which they could hear the sound of waves, strong winds and a boat engine, they realized the calls were from a distressed migrant.

The Italian Coast Guard was immediately alerted, and four boats, heading towards Sicily and carrying 600 migrants between them, were located.

The calls were made with a satellite phone, which are usually given to migrants by people smugglers with instructions to call the sea rescue service’s Rome operation as they approach Italy.

The migrants were among the almost 1,500 rescued off Sicily over the first couple of days of this week.