Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 7th January 2021
Case name: 2021_01_07-CM341
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to one boat with 11 travellers which was intercepted and brought back to Algeria.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the case: On Thursday the 7th of January 2021, at 19.22 CET the alarm phone was contacted by a relative alerting us to a boat in distress carrying 11 travellers, all young men. The travellers had left from Annaba, Algeria, on a wooden boat the previous morning at around 6am, and were heading towards Sardinia. The relative had last had contact to the travellers before they departed, and it was not possible for neither the relative nor our shift teams to establish contact to the boat. At 21.53 we called the coastguard on Sardinia. They referred us to the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Rome (MRCC Rome), but told us that no one had arrived to the island in the past 24 hours. We therefore called MRCC Rome and passed on the information we had both via phone and email. At 00.07 we called the Sardinian coastguard again, but they refused to give us any information about ongoing search and rescue efforts. At the same time we stayed in contact with relatives who were becoming increasingly worried about their loved ones as time went by with no news of their whereabouts. We tried to alert the Algerian coastguard to the distress case as well, but were not able to establish communication to them via phone. We therefore sent them an email with all the information we had at 01.15.
The next morning at 7.44 we called the Italian coastguard again, but they continued to refuse giving us any information. Later in the morning the relative informed us that the Algerian Navy had been searching for the boat since the previous day.
At 15.03 the relative informed us that the boat had been intercepted by the Algerian Navy and that the travellers were back in Algeria.


Tweets about the case:
https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1347445558554853378?s=09
“11 people missing between #Algeria and #Sardinia!
Last night, relatives alerted #AlarmPhone about 11 people who left Annaba (Algeria) on January 6th in a boat, going to Sardinia. Since then no news about them.
@guardiacostiera, they need to be found & rescued!”

“UPDATE: We learned by relatives that the 11 people were intercepted by the Algerian Navy. We are relieved that they are alive!”