Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 1st of May 2019
Case name: 2019_05_01-WM385
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted boat with 12 travellers. After two days of search and rescue, survivor reported that 9 people had died, whilst the 3 survivors were forced into hiding in Morocco
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean

Summary of the case On Wednesday the 1st of May at 05.27am, the Alarm Phone was alerted by a contact person to a boat carrying 12 people, including two women. The boat had left at 1am from close to Tangier Med. We were not able to establish a direct contact to the people, but the contact person informed us that the travellers were exhausted and panicking because the weather was really bad. However, the contact person had also lost contact to the boat since 5am. At 06.15am we called the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo (SM) who were already aware of the distress of the boat, and at 06.37am we alerted the Moroccan rescue authorities as well, who confirmed that a search and rescue operation was in progress. In a separate call to SM, they confirm that they had handed over the responsibility for the operation to the Moroccan authorities. Throughout the day, we were in contact with both the Spanish and Moroccan rescue authorities many times, who could not confirm the rescue of the boat.
At 3.46pm SM told us that they could only continue search and rescue efforts, if we were able to establish a direct contact to the boat, which we had not been for the whole morning. However, the Moroccan authorities confirmed at 5.15pm that they were still looking for the boat and had deployed a helicopter. At 9.03pm we sent out a tweet expressing our worries about the boat which had now been at sea for 20 hours in the rough weather. An hour later, the Moroccan rescue authorities told us that they had still not found the boat and would have to pause the operation for the night.

The next morning, they confirmed the continuation of the operation, but throughout the day they continuously told us that they had not been able to find the travellers. At 4.47pm SM told us that their helicopter just came back, but that the Moroccan authorities were still searching with boats. However, they said that it was very difficult spotting them due to the high waves.
At 10.35pm a contact person told us, that he was in contact with a survivor from the boat. The survivor reported that nine people, including both women, had died, and that the three survivors were back in Morocco. We got in touch with one of the survivors, who further told us that the people who had drowned were all from the same village in Senegal, did everything together and had appeared to him like brothers and sisters. He told about their journey that they had been trying to send their position via WhatsApp, when a wave had come and the boat had capsized, which was the reason they had lost the connection. The waves were high, and people had fallen into the water one by one. Eventually they were found by what appeared to be a fishing boat, telling them to wait for the Moroccan navy ship. At that point they were only four people left on the zodiac. During the rescue operation by the Moroccan navy, the boat flipped over again, and a woman lost the rope and disappeared. A Moroccan soldier jumped in the water after her, but unfortunately didn’t manage to rescue her. When they arrived back to Morocco, the three survivors suffering from hypothermia were taken to hospital. The following morning, they were warned that the police was looking for them and managed to escape the hospital and leave the city. The survivor reported that they were currently hiding.
We are deeply saddened by this tragedy and want to express our condolences and solidarity with the families, friends and communities of the nine people who lost their lives, as well as the survivors, who have to live with this extremely traumatic experience. Once again, we want to point out that the underlying cause of these deaths is the EUropean border regime, which constantly is forcing people to leave in such dangerous conditions, whilst continuing to limit rescue resources on the EUropean side of the borders.