Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 26th February 2023

Case name: 2022_02_26ATL017

Situation: 47 travellers in distress in the Altantic Ocean, pulled back by the Moroccan navy after having been taken onboard a merchant vessel.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Atlantic Ocean

Summary of the case: On Sunday the 26th of February 2023, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted to a group of 47 travellers, including seven women, some of them pregnant, and one child, in distress in the Atlantic Ocean. The travellers had left from Boujdour in the evening of the 24th of February, heading towards Las Palmas. We managed to reach the travellers, who told us that they had been picked up by the merchant vessel LIA. They did not know where they would be taken to. We managed to reach the crew onboard LIA, who told us that they had received orders from Salvamento Maritimo to pick up the travellers and then hand them over to the Moroccan navy. We informed the crew that this was against international law as the travellers wished to seek asylum in Spain. We managed to stay in touch with the travellers while they were onboard the merchant vessel. They told us that the Moroccan navy arrived on scene and that they would be embarked on the Moroccan vessel. After this, we lost contact to the travellers. Not long after, the Moroccan search and rescue authorities confirmed to us on the phone that the travellers were onboard the navy vessel and would be brought back to Boujdour. When the travellers arrived back on land, they contacted us and told us that they had been beaten up and were scared of the situation they faced back in the place they had attempted to flee.
Tweets about the case:https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1629815761198800896