Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 10th of September 2018
Case name: 2018_09_10-WM328
Situation: Three boats in distress in the western med, all returned to Morocco
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Monday the 10th of September, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted to three boats in distress on their way to Spain; two of the boats were intercepted by the Moroccan navy, and one of the boats made it back to Moroccan shores on its own.

At 8.25am CEST the Alarm Phone shift team received a direct call from a boat in distress in the Strait of Gibraltar with 12 people (including two pregnant women). The travellers forwarded us their position, and at 8.42am we called SM and alerted them to the boat. At 9.11am we spoke to the travellers again, and they informed us that water had started entering their boat. We immediately called SM to stress the urgency of the situation. The travellers kept sending us their updated positions which we could pass on to SM, but also informed us that the situation was getting worse, as people were getting tired and sick, but after a while we lost contact to the boat. Only in the evening at 6.51pm did we receive a confirmation from a contact person that the travellers had been intercepted and brought back to Morocco.

At 9.16am CEST our shift team was alerted by a contact person to a boat with 11 people, including two women and a baby. We reached the travellers, who were panicking as two people on the boat were very sick. Because of poor phone reception, it was very difficult to figure out where the travellers were, and they were not able to send us their position, and for a long time we were not able to reach them. At 10.52am we reached the travellers again, and they told us that they had been intercepted by the Moroccan navy.

At 11.15am CEST a contact person alerted our shift team to a boat with 54 travellers (including 17 women and three children) who had left from a beach between Nador and Al Hoceima at 1am local time. We reached the travellers who told us that the rubber boat already lost a lot of air, and the situation was therefore very urgent. At 11.36 we called SM and passed on the information we had, and at 12.07pm we managed to get through to the Moroccan rescue authorities as well, who were already aware of the case. At 12.27pm we managed to get the position from the travellers, and we immediately passed it on to both SM and Moroccan rescue authorities. The travellers kept getting more and more desperate, as several people, including children, lost consciousness, and as the petrol leaked out in the boat and started burning their skin. We kept trying to put pressure on the Moroccan rescue authorities to send someone to aid the travellers, but no one came. At 1.50pm we got the information from the contact person that the travellers had reached the Moroccan shore by themselves. This was immediately confirmed when we spoke to the travellers. Afterwards we got the information that four women and one child had been taken to hospital following their burn injuries, whilst the rest of the travellers were taken to the police station.