Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 26th of September 2020

Case name: 20200926-WM489
Situation:58 travelers from Tarfaya were rescued to Fuerteventura by Spanish coastguard. 31 travelers started from Dakhla towards Canary Islands. A family member lost contact, whereabouts remain unclear.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded /Unconfirmed
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea / Canary Islands
Summary of the Cases:

Case 1:
In the very early morning of Saturday the 26th of September the Alarm Phone was alerted to a boat in distress carrying 58 travelers, including 16 women and 3 children. The boat had departed the previous night from Tarfaya, Morocco. At 05:15am our shift team called the Spanish Search and Rescue organisation Salvamento Marítimo (SM) in Las Palmas, they took all the information we had concerning the case and told us that two hours earlier a boat carrying 59 travelers, including 15 women and 3 children, had been rescued and were on their way to Fuerteventura for disembarkation. This information seemed to match our case. In the early afternoon we received confirmation that the rescued travelers were indeed the boat in distress to which we had been alerted.

Case 2:
On 26th of September 2020 at 21:05h CEST, the Alarm Phone received a call from a relative asking if we had information about a boat with 31 travelers who had left from Dakhla. Reportedly, they had left on the 25th at dawn and they had lost contact. At 22:32h, our shift team called the Spanish Search and Rescue organization Salvamento Marítimo (SM) in Las Palmas and passed them the info we had. The Guardia Civil of the Canary Islands called us back and requested more information, so we asked the relative if they had any further details about the type of boat, identities and origins and departure of the travelers. At midnight, we received more details from the relative and a clarification of the time of departure. We passed it on to the Guardia Civil of the Canary Islands. At 10:30h the next morning, we called them back. They did not have news about our case, but they had ongoing rescue missions. Until now, there have not been news about the whereabouts of the 31 people, neither from the side of the Spanish or Moroccan coastguards nor from the side of the relative.