Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 28th September 2021

Case name: 2021_09_28-WM732

Situation: 12 travellers in distress in the Western Mediterranean Sea, arrived safely to Palma.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean

Summary: On Tuesday the 28th of September 2021, in the early morning right after midnight, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of 12 travellers, 10 men and two women, in distress in the Western Mediterranean Sea. The travellers had left from Bordj El Bahrj, Algeria, at around 05.00 CEST the previous morning on a white rubber boat. We were told that they had left in a convoy with two other rubber boats, one of which had already been intercepted by the Algerian navy. We were never able to establish a direct contact to the travellers, and the relative did not have specific information about the exact location of the boat or the current situation. At 02.02 CEST we alerted the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo to the distress of the travellers. At 08.00 CEST we called Salvamento Maritimo asking if they had rescued a boat which could match this description, but were told that due to many rescue operations in the area they were not able to identify this specific boat.
The following day the relative told us that they had spoken to the people who had been on the boat and that they had arrived to the Spanish island Palma and were all safe.