Case name: 2015_11_5-WM66‬‬
Situation: 50 persons in pateras

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: ‪On Thursday, the 5th of November 2015, the Alarm Phone was alerted to one case in the Western Mediterranean. ‬
At shortly before 11.30pm we received two calls from different Moroccan contact person, who informed us about a case of approximately 50 persons with at least 3 children among them on a 9meter long pirogue that had left from Morocco two days earlier at approximately 5am from El Ayoun/ Cabo Boujdour to Canary Islands/Las Palmas. The contact persons were worried, bacuse the travellers had called them around 7pm, saying that they were lost. We could not reach the travellers. We checked on different social networks and saw that the case was already known within solidarity groups and that a rescue operation had started already. The Spanish Rescue agency Salvamento Maritimo on Las Palmas told us that they had been involved in the rescue operation, but had stoppped, as the boat had passed into Moroccan waters and was now being dealt with by the Moroccan authorities. We tried several times to get in touch with the travellers, but without success. We had to wait until Friday afternoon at 2.30pm until we got a final confirmation that the travellers were safe and back in Morocco.