Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 6th February 2022

Case name: 2022_02_06-ATL028

Situation: 54 travellers in distress in the Atlantic Sea, intercepted after many hours of non-assistance. Probably at least four people died.

Status of WTM Investigation: no official numbers of dead

Place of Incident: Atlantic Sea

Summary: On Sunday the 6th of February 2022, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of 54 travellers, including 20 women of which three pregnant, in distress in the Atlantic Sea. The travellers had left from Laayoune the previous evening at around 20.00 CET on a rubber boat. Just before midnight, we managed to reach the travellers who told us that they were in urgent distress as water was entering their boat and that one person had already died. They did not have life vests and told us that the weather was very bad and that their rubber boat was losing air. We also managed to get their GPS position. We immediately relayed all the information we had to the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo. At 00.25 CET the travellers told us that they were close to a merchant vessel which we could see online was the cargo ship ARTABO. We continuously updated Salvamento Maritimo about the deteriorating situation of the travellers, urging them to coordinate a rescue operation with the merchant vessel. However, they insisted that the responsibility to coordinate the rescue operation was with the Moroccan rescue authorities. At 01.09 CET the travellers told us that one woman had fallen in the water, and that the merchant vessel did not attempt to rescue them. At 01.29 CET the travellers reported that the woman had drowned. At 02.22 the travellers told us that several more people had fallen in the water, and they reported that four people had died. The travellers were panicking. At 02.59 CET the Moroccan rescue authorities told us that their patrol boat would soon arrive to the position of the travellers. However, only at 04.23 CET did the travellers see the vessel of the Moroccan navy approaching. On 05.46 CET the Moroccan rescue authorities informed us that the navy vessel was still on scene but had not been able to embark the travellers yet as the weather conditions did not allow for this. An hour later, this was still the case. After this, we lost communication with the boat. At 10.50 CET the Moroccan rescue authorities told us that the rescue operation was still ongoing. However, at 12.44 CET, they told us that the rescue had already happened at 06.30 CET and that all travellers were alive onboard the navy vessel and would be taken to Dakhla. The following evening, we reached one of the travellers who had disembarked in Dakhla. They confirmed to us that four people had lost their lives during their journey. Other information from the travellers also contradicted the information we got from the Moroccan rescue authorities. We never managed to establish with certainty how many travellers lost their lives.

Tweets about the case:
https:// https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1490591360793120770
https://https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1490600876662312961