Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 1st of March 2016

Case name: 2016_03_01-WM84
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 3 boats in Western Med; 2 rescued to Spain, 1 intercepted by Moroccan Navy
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Tuesday the 1st of March 2016 the Alarm Phone was alerted to three boats in distress on their way from Morocco to the Spanish coast. While the Spanish coastguard rescued two boats, in one case the travellers were intercepted by the Moroccan Marine and brought back to Morocco.

At 8.26am the Alarm Phone was directly called from a boat in distress, which had left from Malabata Beach near Tangier/Morocco at 1am, with 9 men on board. The travellers told us that they were very close to the Spanish coast and asked us to call the Spanish coastguard, as they were too exhausted to keep on paddling. At 8.30am we called the Spanish coastguard, who had already started to search for the boat, after they had been informed about the distress situation by the travellers themselves. At 8.33am we called the travellers again and informed them that the coastguard had already started a search and rescue operation. Afterwards, we were not able to directly speak to the travellers again, but at 11.25am the Spanish coastguard confirmed to us that they had rescued the 9 travellers from their rubber boat.

At about the same time, we had also been in contact with another boat, which had called us directly at 8.27am (case 2). 6 persons had left Malabata Beach near Tangier/Morocco at 3.30am and they, too, asked us to call the Spanish coastguard, as they were certainly in Spanish territorial waters. Thus, we also informed the Spanish coastguard about this boat in our call at 8.30am and also provided them with all our information in an e-mail at 8.35am. At 09.15am we called the travellers again and learned that they had been rescued by a rescue vessel of Salvamento Maritimo.

At 2.35pm the Alarm Phone was directly called by a boat with 10 travellers on board, who had started from Tangier Med/Morocco at 3am. They were not in distress, but did not know if they had already entered Spanish territorial waters. Thus, we advised them to try to go on and we promised to call them back 30 minutes later. At 2.55pm the travellers already called us back, they were very tired, but still not sure if they had arrived in Spanish waters. We again advised them to continue rowing in the direction of the Spanish coast. At 3.20pm we talked again to them and learned that they were close to the Spanish coast. Thus we decided to call Salvamento Maritimo, the Spanish coastguard, at 3.25pm. They asked for the boat’s phone number, but we did not forward it, as we were sure that they would hand it over to the Moroccan coastguard, which would even make it more difficult for the travellers, to reach the Spanish mainland. However, at 3.40pm, we learned from the travellers, that the Moroccan Marine was indeed approaching their boat, and at 3.48pm we were told that the Moroccan Marine had started a rescue operation of the boat in question.