Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 17th of March 2024
Case name: 2024_03_17-WM007
Situation: 23 travellers departed from Oran, Algeria, and were intercepted by Algerian authorities
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean
Summary of the Case: In the very early morning of the 17th of March, the Alarmphone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of 23 people, travelling in a white fibreglass boat in the Alboran Sea. Among the people were one women and several children. They have started from Oran, Algeria, and were heading towards Spain. The Alarmphone shift team tried to call the people on the boat who luckily had connection and could communicate with us. They reported that they were drifting, their engine was broken and that also the boat was broken. They asked for urgent rescue. We immediately relayed all the information we had to the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo, who told us that MRCC Algiers is responsible for coordinating a rescue. We therefore called the Algerian authorities who did not want to give us any information and pretended not to know anything about the people during the whole day. In the evening we learn from the relative that the people had been picked up in the morning by the Algerian authorities and been brought back to Oran.

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