Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 08th of August 2023
Case name: 2023_08_08-ATL050
Situation: 40-50 travellers on a boat that left from Agadir arrived on Lanzarote.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Atlantic Ocean

Summary of the Case: In the night of the 8th of August 2023, a relative alerted the Alarmphone to a boat in distress in the Atlantic Ocean. Between 40 and 50 people had left Agadir, Morocco, in a wooden fisher boat on the 6th of August. The Alarmphone shift team tried to reach the travellers but did not succeed. Still, the shift team passed on all the information to the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo and called both Salvamento Maritimo and the Spanish Coast Guard. None of them shared information that allowed the shift team to understand what had happened to the group of travellers. In the afternoon, the shift team found out about ongoing rescue operations but it was still not possible to match them with this boat even though the number of travellers did match. Even after the rescue operation, it was not possible to find out if it was the same boat. Later on, the relative informed the shift team that someone who travelled with their relative called and informed them, that everyone had arrived on Lanzarote.