Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 07th of December 2018

Case name: 2018_12_07 -WM353
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to emergency situations in the Western Med
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Friday the 7th of December 2018, the Alarm Phone was alerted to two boats in distress in the Western Mediterranean Sea. One boat was brought to Algeria, the second boat rescued by Moroccan fishermen and returned to Morocco.

Case 1: The Alarm Phone was alerted at 2.50pm CET on the 7th of December by a contact person to a boat in distress that had left from Nador/Morocco in the morning, carrying 33 people, including 3 women and 2 children. At 3.42pm, we received the phone number of one of the travellers on the boat but we were unable to get through. The contact person who had been in touch had also lost contact to the boat. When we were unable to find out more about the distress situation, we called the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo (SM) at 6.43pm and informed them about the situation. They confirmed that they were already searching for the boat in a wide area of the sea. At 9.30pm SM said that they were still looking for the boat and they had informed the Algerian coastguards as well. At around midnight, SM confirmed that they and the Algerian coastguards were still looking for the boat. Nothing had changed the next morning when we talked to SM at 6.19am. At 8.20am we also spoke to the Algerian coastguards but they could give us no news apart from the fact that they were still searching. At 9.50am, SM told us that they believed the boat had drifted toward Algerian waters and at 10am, 11.48am, 3.37pm, and 8.16pm, the Algerian coastguards confirmed that they were continuing with their search. At 4pm, SM confirmed they were continuing the search as well.
In the evening of the 9th of December, SM stated that they were certain that this boat had been rescued by the Algerian coastguards. Throughout the evening, the night, and the next morning, we tried to receive a confirmation from the Algerian authorities, which was, however, not possible. We also contacted MRCC Rabat at 11.15am but they stated that they had no knowledge of this case. At 11.55am, SM stated again that the Algerian authorities had rescued the boat even if they would not provide us with a confirmation. At 12.25pm, the Algerian authorities stated that they had rescued the people but that in order to find out more we would have to contact the embassies of the peoples’ countries of origin. At 1pm, our contact person confirmed that the people had been brought to Algeria where they were at a police station in Algiers.

Case 2: At 7pm, we were alerted to a boat that had left from Tangier/Morocco, carrying 13 people, including 3 women. They had left in the afternoon. We received a GPS position that we forwarded to SM at 8pm. At 9.30pm, we were able to establish direct contact with the boat and they were hopeful that SM would find them. At 10.50pm, SM stated that the people seemed to not be at sea anymore as they reached them by phone and were told that the people were on land. At 11.24pm, we received a confirmation that the people had an engine problem and were rescued by Moroccan fishermen. They were returned to Morocco.