Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations –14 January 2021

Case name: 20210114-WM551
Situation: One traveller from Beni Ansar reached Melilla swimming, two travellers still missing.
Status of WTM Investigation: Unconfirmed
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: In the late morning of Thursday the 14th of January, the Alarm Phone was alerted to three men who went missing as they were trying to swim from Beni Ansar to Melilla. The alert was given by three men who had survived the crossing and were worried about their friends. At 12:46h CET out shift team called the MRCC Rabat but they had no information about these travellers. In the afternoon we received the information from a relative of the missing men that one of them had reached Melilla the previous evening and had been placed in quarantine with the Guardia Civil. At 20:14h we called the Guardia Civil in Melilla seeking confirmation on this information however they told us that they did not know anything about this case. The following morning we contacted the Spanish Search and Rescue organization Salvamiento Maritimo (SM) as well as the Guardia Civil again, however no one shared any information with us. Later, we spoke again to the survivor of the first group of travellers who first alerted about the missing friends, it was confirmed that two men were still missing. In the evening SM still had no information about these travellers. The following days we continued to try to find out what happened to the travellers via the relative and survivor that contacted us, SM, MRCC Rabat , the Guardia Civil and the Spanish police in Melilla, however no one had any news. To this day we did not manage to find out what happened to the travellers.