Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 10th of June 2018

Case name: 2018_06_10-WM258
Situation: 14 women stranded on Chafarinas island, rescued to Melilla
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case:

On Sunday, 10th of June, at 4:19am CEST, we received information about 14 women that had left by boat for Melilla but had stranded at the Spanish military island Chafarinas. We managed to establish a connection to the group and received their position at 5:06am. We also received pictures of the women and a sign stating that the island was Spanish territory. We were concerned about the danger of a push-back of the group to Morocco. At 5:54 we sent an email to different human rights groups operative in the area to alert them about the case. We stayed in contact with the group during the next hours. They informed us that two of the group had health problems and that 4 of them would be minors. At 8:45am we called the Spanish Rescue authority Salvamento Marítimo (SM) that took all information, but forwarded us to SM Almería, that had already been informed about the case. We sent an email to document the case and express our concerns about an illegal push back of the women back to Morocco. And 9:12am we called SM Almería again. The operator stated that the information was passed to the military on the island and the group would be rescued, but he couldn’t confirm whether to Spain or to Morocco. We spread the news on social media channels to raise public awareness. At 10:12am the group was approached by a man that counted the women. We couldn’t get further information from both SM Tarifa nor SM Madrid. At 11:28am the group informed us that two boats were approaching. At 11:45 they confirmed being with coast guards. We couldn’t find out whether from Spain or Morocco. At 12:30am we called SM Madrid again that confirmed that the group would be with military personal. At 1:30pm we called again, but still the operator couldn’t give us information where the women would be brought to. We requested to provide them with food and water and emphasized that taking them back to Morocco would be illegal under the international law. At 3:50pm SM Madrid informed us that a boat would be sent to the island to transfer the women to Spain.
At 6:17am we saw on a livemap the arrival of a Spanish rescue asset that then headed to the Spanish enclave Melilla. At 9:45pm a local contact confirmed the safe arrival of the women and children in Melilla.