Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations –25th September 2020

Case name: 2020_09_25-WM488

Situation: Not able to confirm the fate of 4 travellers that had departed from Ceuta. 13 travellers from Algeria were brought back to Algeria.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: In the morning of Friday the 25th of September, the Alarm Phone was alerted to a boat in distress by a relative of one of the travellers. The rubber boat had departed from Ceuta the previous evening and was carrying 4 travellers. However, the relative that called us could not provide us with the GPS position of the travellers and the travellers themselves were not answering our calls. At 09:49h CEST we called and sent an email to the Spanish Search and Rescue organisation Salvamento Marítimo (SM) with the information we had concerning this case. Around 12:10h we called again the SM and received the information that a boat with 4 people had been rescued and that the Moroccan Marine Royale had also rescued several boats, however, we could not retrieve enough information to confirm whether it was the same boat we had been alerted to. In order to try and receive more detailed information on the rescued boat our shift team called and emailed the police in Ceuta, as suggested by the SM. During the rest of the afternoon we tried to establish contact with the travellers several times, but never managed to speak to them. The relatives that had alerted us in the morning were also unable to speak to the travellers. In the evening the police in Ceuta told us that they had no information about sea rescues. The following morning, the 26th of September, we spoke SM again and learned that the identities of the rescued travellers did not match the names of the people we were looking for. Our shift team called the Moroccan Marine Royale who told us that they were aware of the case and were still searching for the boat. Around 14:00h SM told us that the Moroccan Marine Royale had rescued several boats carrying 4 travellers, however the names of the travellers whose identity was known did not match our names, nonetheless some rescued travellers were still unidentified. The officer also informed us that they would start a rescue operation around 16:00h. We then called the Moroccan Marine to try and get more details on the rescued boats, yet the officer who picked up the phone told us that they had no information. We insisted, explaining that SM informed us about several rescues. At 15:15h the Marine Royale called back and told us that 4 people on a Kayak had been rescued the previous evening near Ceuta, however they did not have information on their identities. During the rest of the afternoon we unsuccessfully tried to get new information from Spanish and Moroccan coastguards as well as from the relatives of the travellers that first alerted us. The following morning, the 27th of September, the SM told us that they had no news but that they were still searching for the boat. In the evening SM called us back and told us that they had been searching for three days with planes and search and rescue vessels but did not find anything. They told us that the following day the search would continue but only through merchant vessels and not by dispatching planes. During all of this time we were in contact with the relatives of the travellers, however they were also not able to get confirmation on the fate of the travellers. On the 29th of September we saw a Facebook post informing that a man had been rescued in the Alboran sea, he had departed 10 days earlier from Ceuta with three friends that had sadly died during the journey. Ultimately we were not able to confirm wether these were the travellers we were looking for, so their fate still remains unknown.

Around 12:00h of the same day, Friday the 25th of September, the Alarm Phone was alerted by a relative of one of the travellers to a boat in distress carrying 10 people that had departed from Bad el Ouade, Algeria, the early morning of the 22nd of September. After unsuccessfully trying to establish direct contact with the travellers at 14:53h we called the Spanish Search and Rescue organisation Salvamento Marítimo (SM) in Almeria, passing on all the information we had. Several relatives of different travellers called us during the day asking whether we had information, they told us that the travellers on board were probably 12 or 13. During the afternoon we tried to call several offices of SM however it seemed that they were not reacting to this distress call. The following morning we were still unable to establish contact with the travellers, SM was not giving us any information, and there was no search and rescue operation in sight. Our shift team also tried to call the Algerian coastguard several times but the line was busy or seemed to not be working. At 12:03h one of the SM offices informed us about the arrival of 17 travellers on the island of Mallorca the previous day, they did not have much information but it did not seem like our case as we were looking for 12 or 13 travellers. Other SM offices continued to give us no information and refused a search and rescue operation as the GPS coordinates were missing. During the rest of the afternoon we maintained contact with the relatives of the travellers, who were also trying to find further information. We continuously tried to call the travellers directly but never managed to speak to them. In the evening, at 21:35h we sent an email to Spanish and Algerian authorities requesting a search and rescue operation. The following day we were still not able to receive any news concerning the 13 travellers from either the relatives or the authorities. Finally, on the 30th of September we received the information from one of the relatives, that the travellers were back in Algeria, however we have no more information on what happened.