Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 4th of November 2018
Case name: 2018_11_04-WM349
Situation: 2 boats from Nador each carrying 56 people, 31 people dead despite both boats being rescued
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: At 9.10am CET on Sunday the 4th of November the Alarmphone shift team was alerted to two boats in distress which had left from Nador at 5am local time. Our contact person told us that one of the boats had been rescued to Spain, and that the other boat’s engine was broken and water was coming into the boat. For the boat still in distress we contacted the Spanish Search and Rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo (SM) at 10:10am, who said that they were already aware of the case and that a rescue mission was underway. Over the next few hours we were unable to get any confirmation of a successful rescue of the boat still in distress. At 12:20pm we contacted the Moroccan Navy and learned that they had found a boat with around 50 or 60 people on board, but further information would be available later in the evening. We received no more information until the next day, when at 10:20am on Monday the 5th of November the SM told us that they were still searching for the boat. At 10pm our contact person for this case heard from one of the survivors from this boat that approximately 30 of his fellow travellers had died. He also told us that the boat had been taken to Melilla. On Tuesday the 6th of November we heard that the authorities had confirmed that there were at least 31 people dead.