Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 18th of August 2017

Case name: 2017_08_18-WM153
Situation: 10 travellers returned to Morocco by themselves, several deported
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean

Summary of the Cases: On Friday the 18th of August at 7.30pm the Alarm Phone was alerted by a contact person to a boat carrying 10 travellers. They had left from Tangier four and a half hours earlier, and were tired and had lost direction. The contact person had already contacted the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo (SM), but had problems communicating with them as they didn’t speak French.
At 8.08pm we managed to reach the travellers, and immediately after we alerted SM, who told us that they were already looking for the boat. At 9.00pm a contact person informed us that the travellers had decided to turn around and go back to Morocco, and that they had also called the Moroccan navy, but that they had not come to help them. After this it was no longer possible to establish contact to the travellers. At 10.09pm we called SM, who informed us that they had spotted the boat one mile of the Moroccan coast, and therefore handed over the case to the Moroccan navy. We then called the Moroccan navy who confirmed that they had received the information from SM, and that they were searching for the boat. At 10.25 the contact person informed us that the travellers were safe and had reached the Moroccan coast by themselves. Once they reached the shore they were taken to the police station by the military where their fingerprints were taken, and the people who did not have papers were deported to the south of the country.