Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 16th of January 2023

Case name: 2023_01_16-WM003

Situation: 14 people in distress in the Alboran Sea, probably rescued by Salvamento Maritimo, brought to Almeria, Spain

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded, open for follow up

Place of Incident: Alboran Sea

Summary of the Case: On Monday the 16th of January, around midday the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of 14 male travelers, in distress in the Western Med. The travelers had left from Oran, Algeria at 21:00 CET three days before (13th of January) on a white blue rubber boat. Around the same time another relative contacted us asking about the same boat. We were not able to establish a direct contact to the travelers. We relayed all the information we had to the Spanish Search and Rescue organization Salvamento Maritimo via phone call and tried to learn more about the remain of the travelers. Salvamento Maritimo Almeria recommended us to call Salvamento Maritimo Cartagena and Valencia, who were searching for the boat the last two days but would not tell us new information. In the afternoon a third relative called, providing some more detailed information like the type of boat.

In the evening we learned from the first relative, that they haven been in contact with a person who was in a detention center in Almeria and said that the 14 travelers were there as well. Since we were not able to confirm this information through Salvamento Maritimo, the police of Almeria nor the Red Cross Spain, we decided to leave this information to be confirmed open.