Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 18th of January 2016

Case name: 2016_01_18-WM75
Situation: 10 persons intercepted by Moroccan Marine between Tangier/Morocco and Tarifa/Spain
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Monday the 18th of January 2016 at 8.02am the Alarm Phone was directly called from a boat in the Western Mediterranean Sea going in the direction of Tarifa/Spain. 10 travellers had left Tangier Med in Morocco at 3am and asked us to alert the Spanish coastguard. We called the Spanish rescue organization Salvamiento Maritimo (S.M.) in Tarifa and urged them to start a rescue operation. We were told that S.M. had recently rescued a boat in distress in this area, but we assured to them that the boat in question was still at sea. At 8.11am we called the travellers back and confirmed that we have informed the Spanish rescue organization. They said that they were tired but that they were not in immediate distress. We asked them to go on and promised to call them back in 30 minutes. At 8.43am we called the people on board of the boat again and learned that their situation had not changed much. Salvamento Maritimo had not arrived yet, but they told us that they could see a big white vessel in front of them. At 8.50am we called Salvamento Maritimo in Tarifa again and forwarded the information we had received from the travellers. We were told that the officers in Tarifa had obtain information from S.M.’s headquarter in Madrid that the boat with 10 persons on board had been intercepted by the Moroccan Marine. We stressed that this does not fit to our information and that the boat we were in contact with was still in the water. They promised to send a rescue vessel in order to search this boat. At 9.23am we called the travellers’ phone number again, but they did not pick up our call. After several further attempts we reached the travellers at 10.08am. The person we spoke to was very angry and told us that the boat had been intercepted by the Moroccan Marine.