Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 2021

Case name: 202010127-WM563

Situation: Seven people departed from Al Hoceima, rescued to Motril

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean

Summary of Case
In the afternoon of January 27th Alarm Phone was alerted to a distress case of six, which later turned out to be seven, men who had left from Al Hoceima. A relative of the people on the boat informed us that the boat had departed earlier the same morning and the relative had lost all contact and was very worried. Neither were we able to establish direct contact with the boat. We forwarded details provided by the relatives to authorities at 17.17 CET. At 18.26 CET the relative informed us that another family member had also contacted Moroccan authorities to clarify whether the boat had been intercepted and people arrested, which, according to the relative had not been the case. We contacted authorities in Almería via phone again at 22.15 CET to request an update but were informed that authorities had no news on this case. Still, we had not been able to establish direct contact with people on the boat.

At 03.01 CET January 28th the relative who had first alerted us to the case informed us the boat had been rescued by Salvamento Maritimo. Since we were still unable to contact peole on the boat we contacted authorities in Spain to try and confirm the rescue. Salvamento Maritimo Almería was friendly but relatively unhelpful in confirming the safety of the six people in distress, which would have consoled and relieved their family members. Eventually, MRCC Madrid confirmed the rescue of seven men from the area of Al Hoceima.