Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 25th of February 2020
Case name: 2020_02_25-WM455
Situation: 34 travellers reached the Canary Island but one man deceased.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: At 16:35 CET of Wednesday the 25th of February we were informed by a contact person about a boat in distress carrying 35 travellers, including 17 women and 6 children. The boat had departed from Dakhla and was heading towards the Canary Islands. We tried to contact the travelers directly but were unable to reach their phone. The following morning, the 26th of February, the contact person, who was in touch with the relatives of the travellers, called us again worried, as the boat had left more than two days earlier and the relatives had received no news since. At 11:47 we were informed that the Spanish coastguard was aware about the case and was searching for the boat. In the evening we called directly the coastguard in Las Palmas who informed us that a search plane had been searching in the morning but had not spotted the boat, they told us that the search would continue the following morning. During the whole day and night, we were still not able to establish contact with the travellers. The following morning , our shift team called again the coastguard in Las Palmas, the search operation had yet to start however they told us that the Moroccan coastguard might have intercepted the boat. The Moroccan coastguard informed us that they had rescued two boats near Dakhla in the previous days, however the number of travellers of the rescued boats did not match our case. Later in the afternoon, our contact person informed us that she had been in contact with the relative of one of the travellers who told her that the boat had arrived in the Canary Islands. This information was later confirmed by another contact person who however, also told us that very sadly one of the travellers had deceased during the journey. We were not able to find further information concerning the man that passed away.