Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigation – 08th of October 2015

Case name: 2015_10_08-WM62
Situation: Vessel carrying 10 people intercepted by Moroccan Navy between Tangier and Tarifa
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case:: In the afternoon of Thursday the 08th of October 2015 a contact person called the Alarmphone from Morocco, providing us with a number of a boat in distress in the Western Mediterranean Sea. In a direct call at 3pm the travellers on board told us that they had departed from Cap Spartel near Tangier at night and were rowing since then, with 10 people on board of a rubber boat. In the meantime some of them had lost consciousness, but in that moment they saw a white vessel approaching them. At 3.22pm we talked again with the contact person and agreed to call the Spanish maritime rescue organization Salvamento Maritimo, despite the risk that they inform the Moroccan navy. Salvamento Maritimo in Tarifa informed us at 3.26pm that they had already been called directly by the boat and confirmed its phone number. Both, the Spanish coastguard and the Moroccan navy were searching for the boat in distress. At 3.31pm we talked to the travellers again and they confirmed to us, that the Moroccan navy had intercepted them.