Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 17th July 2022

Case name: 2022_07_17-ATL073

Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to boat with 30 travellers in distress in the Atlantic, 26 travellers were intercepted by the Moroccan navy, four remain missing.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Atlantic Ocean

Summary of the case: On Sunday the 17th of July 2022, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of 30 travellers, including two women and a child, in distress in the Atlantic Sea. The travellers had left from Tan Tan the same morning at around 04.00 CEST, heading towards the Canary Islands on a rubber boat. We managed to reach the travellers and got their GPS position. They told us that their boat was losing air and that one woman onboard was pregnant and in labour. We immediately alerted the Moroccan rescue authorities to the distress situation. However, later on they informed us that they had no rescue vessels available and that they therefore requested assistance from the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo to carry out the search and rescue operation. We therefore called Salvamento Maritimo and relayed all the information we had. They did not seem to be aware of the distress call prior to our call. We called the Central coordination office for Salvamento Maritimo in Madrid as well, who told us that they could not accept responsibility for the search and rescue operation as the travellers were within the Moroccan search and rescue zone. In the meantime, we stayed in contact with the travellers whose panic was increasing, as they told us that if help did not arrive soon they would die. At 02.31 CEST the travellers told us that some people had fallen into the water. We kept relaying the updated GPS positions of the boat to the rescue authorities when possible and attempted to put pressure on them to launch a rescue operation. As the hours went by, we could hear the desperation onboard increase during our phone calls. At 06.44 CEST the travellers told us that a merchant vessel had arrived and was standing by. At 07.26 CEST the Moroccan rescue authorities informed us that their rescue vessel would arrive in three hours and that the merchant vessel would stay by the travellers until then. At 08.38 CEST the travellers told us that if they were not rescued within half an hour, they would all be dead. After this, we were no longer able to reach the boat in distress. We therefore put pressure on the Moroccan rescue authorities to coordinate for the merchant vessel to carry out rescue, but received the reply that the merchant vessel was too big to carry out such an operation. At 14.24 CEST the Moroccan rescue authorities informed us that they had picked up the travellers and were taking them back to Tan Tan. They could not give us information about how many travellers had been rescued. In the evening, we were told that the Moroccan navy had rescued 26 travellers, including two women and a child, meaning that four people were missing.

The following evening, the Moroccan rescue authorities confirmed that four travellers were missing. Over the following days, we continued asking for updates from the Moroccan search and rescue authorities, and eventually learned that they had halted the search with the four travellers remaining missing. We fear that these four travellers lost their lives during their attempt to reach Europe, something that might have been prevented, had the Moroccan and Spanish rescue authorities responded to the distress situation without delay. Our thoughts and solidarity are with the friends and families of those missing as well as the survivors who had to endure this traumatic experience.

Tweets about the case:
https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1548932694951739392
https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1548972085589991424
https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1549844137742110726?t=Awp_YrKTRgQfFg328_4fNw&s=19