Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 31th of July 2016

Case name: 2016_07_31-WM112
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to boat in distress in Western Med, rescued to Spain
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Sunday, the 31st of July 2016 at 1.35pm, the Alarm Phone received a call from a Moroccan phone number. We were informed about a boat in distress, carrying 29 people, including one child. They had left from Nador/Morocco at 5am and he had lost contact to the group at 10am. He provided us with the travellers’ phone number and we tried to call them immediately afterwards, but did not reach them. At 1.40pm, we called the contact person back and asked for further information. He told us about 7 women on board, of whom 3 were pregnant and about a child of 14 years. They had left Nador in the direction of Almeria/Spain. Beyond that, he was convinced that the had already left Moroccan territorial waters. We asked him if we should call the Spanish coast guard and he said yes. At. 1.51pm, we called Salvamento Marítimo in Almeria and forwarded all information we had obtained so far. Afterwards, we informed the contact person that we had alerted the Spanish coast guard and asked him to call us back as soon as he had any further information. At 2.04pm, we wrote an email to Salvamento Marítimo, and the UNHCR and the CEAR and forwarded all information in written form to them. At 2.20pm, we noticed a SAR aircraft in the area on vesselfinder.com and also observed, that the rescue vessels SALVAMAR ALGENIB and GUARDAMAR POLIMNIA were both leaving the port of Almeria. At 2.27pm, the contact person called us back and asked for news. We promised him, to call him back as soon as we obtain new information. At 2.43pm, we received an SMS-alert that the phone of the travellers was switched on again. However, we were not able to reach them – and also at 3.20pm the phone was still not reachable. At 3.32pm, we saw that Helena Maleno Garzón was reporting about the boat in distress on Twitter. At 3.35pm, we observed that the SAR aircraft had returned to Almeria. However, the rescue vessel SALVAMAR ALGENIB was heading south-east, while GUADAMAR POLIMNIA was heading south-west. At 3.55pm, we called Salvamento Marítimo again, but they had no news for us but asked us to call back later. In another call with Salvamento Marítimo in Almería, we were informed that the boat in distress had been rescued and that all 35 people on board were on their way to Spain. Afterwards, we forwarded this information to the contact person, who was very happy and relieved.