Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 16th of December 2019

Case name: 2019_12_16-WM434
Situation: 90/94 people started from Nador, 76 people rescued to Morroco, 8 people injured, 7 people died
Status of WTM Investigation: concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean

Summary of the Case:
On 16 December in the early morning at 01:21h CET our shift team was contacted by relatives about a boat which was about to loose air. The telephone number we were provided with was not reachable the whole night, also the contact to the relative broke down. At 07:15h the travellers called the Alarm Phone by themselves and stated that the situation is bad and that they still could see the Moroccan coast line. When our shift team called MRCC Rabat at 07:50h they learned that the Moroccan authorities were informed by MRCC Madrid and that the Moroccan Navy was already searching for the travellers. 40 minutes later MRCC Rabat stated to have localized the boat between Nador and Al Hoceima. Around 9:00h we provided all authorities with the information by email. When we called MRCC Rabat 15 minutes later they confirmed the ongoing rescue. Also 2 hours later they stated to be rescuing. The Alarm Phone couldn't establish again contact to the travellers all the time and around 15:00h the NGO Caminando Fronteras tweeted about a tragedy: „At least twenty-two survivors hospitalized and only seven corpses recovered.“ The shift team called MRCC Rabat at 14:50h and gathered the information that 63 people have been rescued, 7 people died and some people were still missing. In various phone calls with the authority in Morocco our shift teams learned that the search for the missing people was ongoing over night. The next day, 17 December, we learned from the NGO AMDH that all in all 84 people were rescued. 8 people were found injured and brought to the hospital in Nador. 7 people lost their lives.