Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigation – 1st of June 2015

Case name: 2015_06_01-WM14
Situation: Distress calls from the Western Mediterranean Sea, interceptions by Moroccan Navy
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea, near Morocco

Summary of the Case: At around 7am on Monday the 1st of June 2015, the Alarm Phone shift team received a distress call from a small plastic vessel in the Western Mediterranean Sea (henceforth referred to as vessel 1). There were 8 men, 2 women and 1 baby on the vessel and they sought to reach Southern Spain. In several, often disrupted, phone calls, we understood that they had left the Moroccan shores at around 5am and were now in urgent need of rescue. The shift team quickly reached out to the Spanish rescue agency Salvamento Maritimo and informed them about the situation. In further phone conversations with the passengers in distress it became clear that they were very scared and they also did not want to be returned to Morocco by the Moroccan Navy.

The shift team then reached out to the Sea Watch vessel that is currently located in the Western Mediterranean Sea. The crew stated that they could see the Spanish rescue vessel which had, however, stopped its engine. At around 8am we reached the passengers again and the situation seemed to become increasingly worrisome. The baby had vomited and was now unconscious. They also reported that the Moroccan Navy vessel was nearby but not initiating a rescue operation. Moreover, the Spanish rescue vessel seemed to have been nearby as well but not intervening.

At around 9.30am, Salvamento Maritimo confirmed that the passengers had been rescued about 30 minutes earlier by the Moroccan Navy. However, the people in distress stated that they were still on the vessel and not rescued. They reported that the vessel of the Moroccan Navy was sailing past them and creating large waves without responding to their pleas to be rescued. Our shift team then contacted the Moroccan coastguard directly to demand a rescue operation. The Moroccan coastguard, after a difficult conversation, finally confirmed that a rescue operation would be launched. At 10am, the passengers stated that they were still not saved and asked to be rescued by somebody else.

At 10.30am, we received the information from a contact person on Moroccan mainland that a vessel (henceforth referred to as vessel 2) had left Tangier at 4am, carrying 25 people, including 2 women and 6 babies. Again we contacted Salvamento Maritimo and passed on the received details.

At 11am the passengers of vessel 1 confirmed that they had been picked up by the Moroccan Navy and returned to Morocco where they were held at a police station. They had been told that they would be released in the evening. We informed fellow activist supporters in the region to get in touch with them and inquire whether the baby needed medical attention. Later they fortunately found out that the baby was fine.

Contact to vessel 2 could not be established for several hours and at around 2pm Salvamento Maritimo stated that all vessels on the day had been intercepted by the Moroccan Navy. We passed this on to the contact person who had alerted us to vessel 2.

At around 3pm, contact persons informed the shift team that a third vessel was in distress in the Western Mediterranean Sea and passed on a phone number from one of the passengers. When we succeeded to get through to the person, he informed us that they were well but had already been intercepted by the Moroccan Navy which was in the process of returning them to Morocco.