Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations –14 January 2021

Case name: 20210114-WM550
Situation: 34 travellers from Dakhla rescued to Gran Canaria, one young boy died.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: In the evening of Thursday the 14th of January the Alarm Phone was alerted by a relative of one of the travellers to a wooden boat in distress that had departed from Dakhla three days earlier and was heading towards the Canary Islands. The boat was carrying 35 people, including 20 women and 4 children. After having unsuccessfully tried to reach the travellers directly, at 19.46h CET we alerted the Spanish Search and Rescue organisation, Salvamiento Maritimo (SM). Later in the evening SM in Las Palmas told us that there were several ongoing rescue operations. After failing again to contact the travellers later in the night we called back SM but they had not rescued a boat that could have matched this case. The following morning SM told us that they would launch another rescue operation around mid-day, the travellers were still unreachable and the relative that first alerted us had no news. In the evening SM confirmed that they had rescued to Gran Canaria a boat with 34 travellers, including 20 women and 3 children. We strongly believed this was our boat. Sadly, a few days later we received the information that a young boy had died during the five days the boat was at sea.