Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 16th of June 2018Case name: 2018_06_16-WM264
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to two distress cases between Morocco and Spain, one traveller died during the rescue operation.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea
Summary of the Case: On Saturday the 16th of June, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted to two boats in distress in the Western Mediterranean. Both boats were rescued by the Moroccan navy. However, one traveller drowned during the rescue operation of the second boat.
At 12.48pm, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a contact person to a boat in distress carrying 51 travellers, amongst them seven women. The boat had left the day before in the early evening from Nador. The contact person had not been able to reach the travellers since the previous evening, and we did also not manage to establish direct contact. At 1.13pm the contact person informed us that the travellers had been intercepted by the Moroccan navy.
At 09.10pm, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a contact person to a group of 11 travellers, who had left from a beach just south of Tangier two hours earlier. Via the contact person we received the position of the travellers, but from 10.25pm it was not possible for neither us nor the contact person to reach the travellers. At 10.45pm we called the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo (SM) and passed on our information. At 11.41 we managed to reach the travellers. They had been rescued by the Moroccan navy and were back in Morocco, but they informed us that one person had drowned. We learned via the contact person that the person had drowned during the rescue operation, and that the Moroccan navy had been unwilling to resuscitate him.
Four days later we received a testimony from the group of travellers, explaining the events on the night that their friend lost his life. They explained that the Moroccan navy had come towards them, just as a Spanish helicopter had spotted them from above. The navy had approached them quickly, creating big waves which caused the boat to capsize. Most of the travellers managed to cling on to their rubber boat, which had flipped over. They explained how their friend was not able to grab hold of the boat, and how the navy made no effort to help him, but simply watched him drown. Afterwards they allowed the remaining distressed people onto their vessel, and brought them back to Morocco. We send all our condolences to the family and friends of the traveller who passed away, and want to once again point out that the Moroccan navy is not a rescue organisation, but first and foremost a military unit with border management as their main aim.
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