Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 21st of November 2016

Case name: 2016_11_21-WM125
Situation: Alarm Phone informed about boat in Western Med, probably brought back to Morocco
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Monday the 21st of November 2016 at 5pm, a contact person called the Alarm Phone from Morocco, informing us about 8 travellers who had departed from Tanger/Morocco in the direction of Tarifa/Spain on a rubber boat on the morning of that day. The caller had been in contact with the travellers at 11am, but was not able to reach them afterwards. He forwarded their phone number to us and asked us to alert the Spanish rescue organization Salvamento Maritimo (S.M.). After unsuccessfully trying to reach the travellers directly, we called S.M. at 5.37pm and forwarded all information we had obtained from the contact person. S.M. told us that they had rescued two boats with 11 persons on board on the morning of that day, but they had not heard about a boat with 8 travellers. They promised to call the travellers’ phone number by themselves and also to ask the Moroccan Marine about this case. At 5.41pm we informed the contact person that we had informed S.M. He told us that he might be able to receive another number from the boat and promised to call us back. At 6.20pm, we talked again to him, but he had not yet received another phone number. At 6.35pm, we called S.M. Tarifa again and were told that they had tried to continuously call the number but also did not reach them. The Moroccan Marine had not intercepted any boat on this day. We asked if they could search for the boat with a helicopter, but we were told that S.M. had already observed the sea with a helicopter during the rescue operation of the two other boats and that they had not seen another boat in distress. Beyond that, we were told that due to strong wind and currents the travellers might be back in Morocco. We agreed to call S.M. back if we receive any further news from the contact person. At 6.44pm, we talked again to the contact person, who had not received any further news. Afterwards, we again tried to reach the travellers, but without success. On the next day, we asked some Alarm Phone members in Tanger to find out if there was a boat with 8 men departing from Tanger on the day before, but they were not able to confirm this. However, we also talked again twice to the contact person: In a call at 11am he had no further news, but in another call, at 2.14pm, he told us that the travellers had been rescued by fishermen and had been brought back to Morocco.