Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 17th September 2020
Case name: 2020_09_20-WM484
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to two boats in the Western Med, 12 travellers brought to Motril and another 12 travellers also rescued to Spain.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean

Summary:
On Thursday the 17th of September 2020, the Watch the Med – Alarm Phone was alerted by relatives to two boats in distress in the Western Mediterranean Sea. All 32 travellers were rescued and brought to Spain.

At 10.02 CET we were alerted by a relative to a boat with 12 people which had left from Al Hoceima the previous afternoon at 16.00. The relative had last had contact to the boat the previous evening at 20.00, and neither we nor the relative were able to reach the travellers again. At 10.40 we called the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo and gave them the information we had. They informed us that they had several ongoing rescue operations in the area. However, when we spoke to Salvamento Maritimo again at 12.02 they told us that so far they had not carried out any rescue operations in the Mediterranean on this day. At 13.28 we also forwarded the information we had via email.

At 14.15 the relative informed us that they spoke to the travellers, and that they had been rescued to Almeria and were all safe.
We later found out from a phone call to the Spainsh Guardia Civil that the travellers had been rescued by Guardia Civil and that the boat had been sinking as the officers arrived.

At 18.30 a relative called us, alerting us to a boat with 12 people, including four children. The travellers had left from Algeria, from a village around 70 km from Oran on a black rubber boat. They had departed the same morning at 03.00 am CET, and their engine was no longer working as they had run out of petrol. Despite trying continuously, we never managed to establish direct contact to the travellers. At 19.15 we called the Spainsh search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo and passed on all the information we had. Two hours later, Salvamento Maritimo told us that they had not rescued a boat matching our description. In a call to Salvamento Maritimo at 00.15 they still had no news about the travellers, and told us that they would not be carrying out search operation with their vessels at night. They further told us that there were many boats at sea, and that some had already reached land by themselves. However, at 01.20 the relative told us that they had received information from Salvamento Maritimo that the travellers had been rescued and were in a camp. After several days we finally got the confirmation that the relative had spoken to the travellers who confirmed that they had arrived safely.