Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 26th May 2021
Case name: 2021_05_26-WM613
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 32 people in distress in the Atlantic, all travellers are still missing.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean

Summary of the case:
On Wednesday the 26th of May 2021, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of 32 people: 15 men and 17 women of which two were teenagers, in distress in the Atlantic Ocean. The travellers had left from Boujdour already on the 21st of May at 05.00 CEST on a wooden boat, and the relative had lost contact to the travellers. We were never able to reach the travellers on the phone numbers we had been given. Weather conditions in the area were bad and we were very worried for their safety. At 15.10 CEST we alerted the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo as well as the Guardia Civil. We also published the following tweet alerting the public to the dangerous situation of the travellers:
We have still not been able to find out what happened to the travellers who remain missing. We fear that they have become victims of the deadly European migration policy. A policy that forces people to undertake extremely dangerous journeys in the hope of finding safety and dignity in Europe. We condemn this failing attempt at closing off fortress Europe which is the cause of so many deaths at sea. We demand freedom of movement for all.