Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigation - 21st and 23rd of June 2015

Case name: 2015_06_21-WM23, 2015_06_23-WM24
Situation: Vessels in distress in the Western Mediterranean Sea, intercepted by the Moroccan Navy
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea, near Morocco

Summary of the Cases: On Sunday the 21st of June, the Alarm Phone received a call from a relative of a family that had left Cap Spartel/Morocco in the early morning. He reported that the weather was rough and he passed on the mobile phone number of one of the passengers. Contact to the vessel could not be established and so we reached out again to the relative. He confirmed that he had already informed the Spanish search and rescue agency Salvamento Maritimo. In a phone conversation with them we learned that they had contacted the vessel earlier but had since lost contact to them. About an hour later, the relative informed us that the vessel had been intercepted by the Moroccan Navy.

Two days later, on Tuesday the 23rd of June, the Alarm Phone was alerted to a similar situation of distress, again in the Western Mediterranean Sea. Our contact person on Moroccan mainland informed us about a vessel carrying 11 people who had left Tangier/Morocco at 3am on the day. Already 10 minutes later we received the information that the vessel had just been intercepted by the Moroccan Navy.