Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 12th of August 2018
Case name: 2018_08_12-WM308
Situation: 53 travellers on their way from Al Hoceima for 1½ day, returned to Morocco.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Sunday the 12th of August, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a contact person to a boat with 53 people, including 12 women and two babies. The travellers had left at 1am local time the previous day from around Al Hoceima, and the contact person was worried about them, as they had been at sea for 24 hours. At 1am CEST we called SM, who had no information about the boat, and we therefore immediately sent an email to both SM and UNHCR about the boat. The contact person managed to reach the travellers again and informed us that they were panicking. At 3.20am we managed to reach the travellers. They were not able to give us a position, as they did not have internet connection, and they could also not see other vessels or land as indicator of their whereabouts. We passed on this information to SM, who confirmed that they would commence a search and rescue operation with an aircraft in the morning. At 6.05am SM confirmed that their aircraft was taking off. We stayed in close contact with the travellers, who were getting more and more desperate and exhausted. At 6.03am the travellers told us that they could see a helicopter, which we immediately informed SM about. At 10.03am we spoke to SM again. They informed us that they were still searching with the aircraft, but that visibility was limited. 1½ later we spoke to SM again. They had localized the travellers, but refused to carry out the rescue operation, and had instead alerted the Moroccan rescue authorities and Frontex to the distress case. At 3.16pm we spoke to SM, who informed us that the travellers had been rescued by the Moroccan navy, which was later confirmed by the contact person.