Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 18th May 2021
Case name: 2021_05_18-WM612
Situation: 7 travellers in distress in the Strait of Gibraltar, intercepted by the Moroccan navy
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean

Summary of the case:
On Tuesday the 18th of May at 01.51CEST in the morning, we were alerted by a relative to a group of seven travellers in distress in the Strait of Gibraltar. The travellers had left in a rubber boat from Tangier the previous day at around 14.00 CEST, and the relative informed us that water was entering the boat and that they were adrift. At 02.00 CEST we called the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo and gave them all the information we had. We tried to communicate with the travellers via WhatsApp, but due to technical problems all we could understand was that there situation was bad and that they only had little battery left on their phone. At 03.25 CEST we again received a message from the travellers saying “in front of us”. However, we never found out what they saw in front of them. We tried to call several times, but every time the connection broke shortly after the phone was picked up. The relative sent us a couple of other phone numbers belonging to other people on the boat, but we were also not able to reach the travellers on these numbers. At 04.52 CEST we forwarded this new information to Salvamento Maritimo. At 13.00 we called Salvamento Maritimo again, and they informed us that the Moroccan rescue authorities were coordinating the search and rescue operation. At 14.22 CEST we called the Moroccan rescue authorities, and they informed us that they had rescued several boats the previous evening and in the night, but they could not match information with the boat we had been in contact with. Only in the evening, at 19.40 CEST, we managed to reach one of the travellers. They told us that there had been big waves and that they had run out of battery, which was why communication had not been possible. Eventually, they were intercepted by the Moroccan navy, and they were now held detained at the port, waiting to be deported to another part of Morocco.