Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 8th of March 2020

Case name: 2020_03_08-WM457
Situation: 34 travelers (8 women) started from Dakhla, Morocco, so far no clarification about their situation
Status of WTM Investigation: Unconfirmed
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case:
On 8 January 2020 at 10:39h CET, the Alarm Phone was contacted by the relative of a person in a group of 34 travelers, among them eight women. The relative told us that the group had left from Dakhla, Western Sahara, Morocco towards Las Palmas on 3rd of March, and since then he had lost contact. He passed us two phone numbers from the people on board and we tried to contact them, but without success. After some research for news in the media that could refer to this case, at 12:40h we called the Spanish Search and Rescue organization Salvamento Marítimo (SM) of Las Palmas, reporting about the missing people. They said they had been informed about a boat that left the 3rd of March from Dakhla, but no news about their whereabouts. We sent them an e-mail with the phone numbers from the boat. At 13:15h we called the Moroccan Navy. They said that they had been informed about the case by SM on 4th of March and a search operation was ongoing. We continuously tried to contact the travelers during the day and the night.
The next morning (09.03.) we asked the relative for news, but there were none. At 11:45h we called SM Las Palmas. They informed us that they did not have news but the search operation was still going on. At 13:45h we called the Moroccan Navy and learned that they had not found a boat. Meanwhile we were not able to get through to the travelers and neither was the relative. At 17:05h we called SM Las Palmas who confirmed they were still searching for the people. At 21:15h we talked to SM Las Palmas again and they informed us they would stop searching during the night and continue in the morning.
The next morning (10.03.) we could still not get through to the travelers. At 09:09h we spoke to SM Las Palmas; they were still searching for them. At 10:25h we asked the relative for news, but he did not have any. Also in the (social) media we could not find information referring to this case. At 16:07h we called SM Las Palmas and learned that they had been searching with a plane during the day and had stopped the operation for the day by now. At 16:16h we called the Moroccan Navy. They had not searched for the people during the day and advised us to call the Gendarmerie of Dakhla. At 16:48h we did this, but they did not provide any information to us and passed us the number of the Navy in Dakhla. We called there and were informed that the chief officer was gone for the day and we should call again the next morning. At 22:11h we talked to SM Las Palmas. They informed us that it was not certain that they would search by plane again the next day and that they needed more information about the case to continue the search operation. At 22:24h we informed the relative about the current status.
The next morning (11.03.) we could still not get through to the travelers. At 07:32h we called SM Las Palmas. They did not know if they would continue searching. At 10:05h we called again, and it seemed they were not planning on searching that day. AT 12:20h the relative who had contacted us in the beginning reported that the people were still out at sea. We informed SM Las Palmas about this. At 16:55h SM Las Palmas reported to be still searching without success. During the day, we could not still not get through to the travelers and at 21:00h SM Las Palmas stated that they had stopped the search operation until they would receive updated information about the case.
We continued trying to get through to the travelers and kept in contact with the relative during the next four days, but without concrete new information on the fate of the travelers and SM Las Palmas and the Moroccan Navy stopped searching.
Until today we were not able to get any information of the whereabouts of the 34 people. We have to fear the worst.