Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 12th June 2021

Case name: 2021_06_12-WM630

Situation: 36 travellers in distress in the Atlantic Sea intercepted by the Moroccan Navy after Salvamento Maritimo were searching for days.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean

Summary of case: On Saturday the 12th of June in the early hours of the morning, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of 34 people, including two children, 11 women and 23 men, who were in distress in the Atlantic Sea. The travellers had left from the south of Morocco close to Guelmim the night before on a grey rubber boat. Their relative had last spoken to them at around 08.00 CEST and did not have the exact position of the distress. At 03.30 CEST the 12th of June we sent an email to the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo, forwarding all the information we had about the distress situation. Salvamento Maritimo told us in a phone call shortly after that they were already aware of this boat and searching for it. Throughout the night we did not manage to reach the travellers. In the afternoon we published the following tweet: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1403696501365166082?s=19

SOS in the Atlantic! 100+ people on #Canary route!We alerted Spanish authorities to 36 people who left Sidi Ifni & 67 who left Laayoune. They say they can search only for 1 boat due to lack of resources. The weather is terrible, we ask for the rescue of both! @salvamentogob

During the next day we stayed in contact with Salvamento Maritimo who continued their search for the boat with their aircrafts. On the 13th in the evening we managed to reach the travellers who told us that they had been intercepted by the Moroccan Navy. They told us that they were all exhausted and that some of the travellers had been injured.