Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 13th of November 2018
Case name: 2018_11_13-WM350
Situation: Around nine travellers on their way to Spain from Algeria, with unknown outcome.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Tuesay the 13th of November at 6.17pm, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of travellers who had left two days earlier from around Orán heading towards Murcia. They were around nine people, including women and children, and the relative had lost contact to the boat, but gave us the number of the travellers. The last contact to the boat had been at 6pm, when the travellers had informed the relative that they had run out of fuel and were thus drifting. We were also never able to reach the travellers, despite trying continuously for several days.
At 6.46pm we alerted the Spanish search and rescue organization Salvamento Maritimo (SM) to the distress of the travellers, They later confirmed that they were searching for the travellers, including with a helicopter. For several days we tried to reach the travellers and were in contact with SM about the ongoing rescue operation. On the 15th of November, at 10.40am, however, SM informed us that they were no longer searching for the boat, as they had already been at sea for many days, and thought it was unlikely that they were still in distress at sea. We were never able to reach the travellers or get any news from the relative. Thus, we are still unsure if the group managed to reach land somewhere on their own, or if they will add to the devastating number of people having lost their lives at sea.