Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 4th of December 2019
Case name: 2019_12_04-WM431
Situation: Approximately 60 travellers, in two or 3 boats, arrived safely to Tenerife.,
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Wednesday the 4th of December we were alerted to 3 boats that had departed from Morocco and were heading towards the Canary Islands. These cases continued for several days, ultimately we felt that there were actually only two boats, one with 30 travellers and one with 26 travellers, which both arrived safely to Tenerife.

At 18.42 CET of Wednesday the 4th of December our shift team was alerted, by the same person, to two boats (hereinafter boat 1 and boat 2) in distress that had left Monday around 20h from somewhere in-between Laayoune and Boujdour. We were informed that the phones of the travellers were not reachable since their departure. According to the person that called us, one boat was carrying 28 travelers including approximately 10 women and 2 children and the second boat was carrying 27 travellers, including an unknown number of women and children. Both boats were wooden and equipped with two engines, they were aiming to reach Las Palmas, Tenerife (Canary islands). This information was obtained after multiple phone calls with the contact person, as connection was difficult. After failing to establish contact with the travellers themselves at 20h30 we alerted the Spanish coastguard in Las Palmas about these cases. At 22h15 of the same evening we were alerted, by another contact person, to another two boats in distress heading towards the Canary Islands. Later, the contact person corrected that it was actually only one boat, white and also with two engines, carrying 30 travellers, including between 9 and 13 women (hereinafter boat 3). Boat 3 had left Dakhla on Monday the 1st of December around 21h. At around 23h30 we sent an email to Las Palmas coastguard alerting them about this third boat. At midnight we received the information that one of the boats, with 30 travellers including 2 children and 4 women, had safely arrived in Las Palmas. This information was published on a facebook post by the migrant-rights activist Helena Maleno. We were also informed about the nationalities and the names of some of the travellers of boats 1 and 2 by our contact person. The information concerning the number of travellers and the number of women and children on the boat that had arrived to Tenerife as reported by Helena Maleno, was confirmed by the Las Palmas coastguard. However, Las Palmas coastguard did not have information on the nationalities or the names of the travellers. They suggested that we contact the police (Guardia Civil) to confirm this information. Given that the number of travellers on the boat that had safely arrived did not correspond to the number of travellers on the boats we were alerted about (although the total number of travellers corresponded to boat 3 the number of women was very different) we could not, at this point, safely assume that the boat that had arrived was one of “our” cases.

The following morning, on Thursday the 5th of December, we were still unable to establish contact with the travellers of neither of the three boats. At 08h26 we called back the Spanish coastguard who informed us that they had no new information but that they would soon start a search operation with a helicopter. We also called the police (Guardia Civil) who promised to check the information that we had concerning the number, nationalities and names of the people rescued, and call us back. At 13h17 the Spanish coastguard told us that they had not found the two boats but that the search operation was still ongoing. The police (Guardia Civil) informed us that they had forwarded our request and information to the national police (Policia national) and that we should call them directly. At 13h29 the contact person that had initially alerted us about boats 1 and 2 sent us a message confirming that the travellers of boat 1 had safely arrived on the previous day, and had called him earlier in the morning. The confusion over the number of persons on-board was due to the fact that two people that were on the boat 2, with 27 travellers, had changed boat and joined boat 1, which had 28 travellers. Consequently, boat 1, that which had arrived, had 30 travelers, and boat 2, still at sea, was now carrying 25 travellers. At 16:15 our shift team called again the Spanish coastguard to ask if they had news on the boats 2 and 3. They told is that they had not found them but that they will looking for boats “by all means” and hesitantly said that they were also looking with a plane. However, at 16h50 coastguard told us that the plane had stopped searching at around 15h20 as visibility was low. During the rest of the evening we were unable to gather further information from neither the coastguards, as search operation would only resume the following morning, nor the police. We also continued to try and establish contact with the travellers from both boat 2 and 3 but were unable to do so.

The following morning, on Friday the 6th of December, at 8h00 we called the Las Palmas coastguard who informed us that at 9h00 they would launch and arial search mission. When we called back at 10h00 to confirm whether the search mission was ongoing they told us, that they would start in 10 to 15 minutes. At 8h39 we also called the Moroccan coastguard who had no information concerning boats 2 and 3. We continuously tried to call the travellers themselves but could never establish contact. The contact person that alerted us about boat 1 and 2 was also unable to retrieve any further information, however he clarified that he had received a call from boat 2 on Monday the 2nd of December during which the travellers had informed him that the engine was no longer working and that they were drifting towards Dakhla. Approximately three hours later they had called him again to tell him that the engine was working again. This was the last contact he had with the boat. At 10h10 we received a an email from the Las Palmas coastguard that informed us that several boats from Dakhla and the African coast had arrived on the shores of the Canary Islands, however they could not confirm if these were the boats we had alerted them about. They asked us to contact the police (Guardia Civil) for more information. We call the Guardia Civil around mid-day but they told us that they had no information. At 13h55 the Las Palmas coastguard informed us that the result of their search flight was “negative”. At 14h40 we published the following tweet informing about the situation;
+++2 boats missing at sea!+++ 2 groups of about 55 people in total departed from #Morocco on Monday Dec. 2 to reach the #Canaries but disappeared. Weather conditions are bad with strong winds & high waves. Spanish authorities are informed & @salvamentogob is searching for them.

Around 17h00 the contact person from boat 3 told us that he had found out that boat 3 had departed together with another boat around 21h30 on Monday the 2nd of December and that the other boat had been rescued. At this point we were suspecting that boat 2 and boat 3 might have been the same boat, however we could not confirm this. At 19h45 we read a facebook post published by the migrant-rights activist Helena Maleno informing about a boat carrying 26 travellers, including 4 women, that has arrived in Las Palmas. As the number of women on boat was different from the information we got concerning boat 2 and 3 we did not think that the rescued boat was one of “our” cases. Around 21h30 we received a call from a contact person concerning boat 3. According to this person boat 3 had in effect departed with another boat, this other boat, which had 4 children, was the boat that had just been rescued. Reflecting on the complicated situation, at this point we believed that we were dealing with 4 boats, 2 of which had been rescued and 2 which were still at sea.

In the morning of Saturday the 7th of December we again called the Spanish coastguard who informed us that the previous day they had rescued a boat with 29 travellers, of which 25 were men and 4 were women. They had no further information on the travellers but they also told us an airplane was currently on a search mission. The boat rescued appears to be the same one that we had found out about the previous day, however the number of travellers was different. In the early afternoon we spoke again with the contact person who first informed us about boats 1 and 2. At 15h38 the contact person of boat 2 calls us back and tells us about another facebook post by the migrant rights activist Helena Maleno, informing about a boat that had been rescued the previous night to Tenerife with 29 people on board, including 4 women. Similarly, the media reported about two boats, both carrying 26 travellers, that had been rescued to the Canary island. Although these could have been “our” cases we had to find confirmation for it.

In the evening of Sunday the 8th of December, at 18h05 our shift team called the Moroccan authorities to see whether the boats could have been intercepted by the Moroccan coastguard. They told us that they had no information concerning these boats, the only information they had was in regards to the rescue by the Spanish coastguard of a boat with 30 people on the 4th of December (boat 1) and a boat they rescued on the same day carrying 11 travellers. At 19:40 we called the Las Palmas coastguard to enquire about the rescued boat carrying 26 travellers that the media had reported about on the previous day. They told us that the boat had arrived yesterday and that it was carrying 12 men, 12 women (of which one was pregnant) and 2 children. Further, they told us that the boat, which was wooden, colored of white and green and with two engines, had departed from Morocco on Sunday the 1st of December, probably from Boujdour. It had arrived independently to Tenerife and it was the only boat that arrived in Tenerife that week. They could not confirm the names of the people on board (on the 4th of December we were given the names of two travellers on boat 2 so we wanted to use this information to verify whether it could have been boat 2). The coastguard then suggested that we call the Tenerife police for more information. We called the Tenerife police who asked us to call them back the following morning as the responsible officers where not available. In the evening we spoke again with the contact person from boat 2, he could not confirm the exact number of people that were on board but the numbers of the boat that had arrived (12 men, 12 women and 2 children) could correspond.

In the afternoon of Monday the 9th of December we called the police of Tenerife to confirm whether the names we had of two travellers on boat 2 were amongst those who arrived, they were unable to give us this information. We therefore called the police headquarters who asked us to send an email with our request. We read on the media that a boat with 26 people, including 9 men and 17 women (amongst them a 5 year old girl), arrived in Tenerife and another boat also with 26 travellers was rescued to Gran Canaria. Around 17h00 we receive a call from a friend of one of the travellers on boat 2. He tells us that he is sure that there were 16 or 17 women on the boat and a young girl.This matches the information we read on the news about the boat that arrived to Tenerife. At 21h05 we finally managed to speak with one of the travellers on board of boat 3, the traveller confirmed that they had arrived on Saturday on Tenerife, she could not, however, confirm what exact place they had departed from. Although there was still some confusion concerning the place of departure of boat 2 (Laayoune and Boujdou) and boat 3 (Dakhla) we strongly believe that boat 2 and boat 3 were actually the same boat.