Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 2nd of June 2016

Case name: 2016_06_05-WM100
Situation: rubber vessel with 57 persons from Bojador rescued to Gran Canaria, 10 other travellers not able to leave Morocco
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case:‪ ‬‬On Sunday, the 5th of June 2016, the Alarm Phone was alerted to one case in the Western Mediterranean. ‬
At 1.30pm, a migrant living in Morocco informed us about a boat that had left at 3am local time near Layoune, Morocco. At 1.40pm, we called the Spanish rescue agency Salvamento Maritimo in Las Palmas, who were already informed about a boat that had started close to Bojador with 57 passengers. We tried to reach out to our contact in Morocco to find out from where exactly the boat had started and how many passengers were on the boat. The contact person confirmed that the boat he had called about was the same as the one Salvamento Maritimo had talked about, but he would not provide more information. We called back S.M. who told us that they were searching for the boat with a helicopter and a boat, but they did not expect to find the boat soon given the large size of the area in question. At 2.40 we tried again to get more information from our contact on Morocco, but he told us that the phone of his contact on the boat was switched off and that he had last been in touch with him at 1pm. At 10.45pm we found a news article by the Spanish newspaper El Mundo about the rescue of 58 persons who had left from Bojador the night before and who would be brought to the harbour of Gran Canaria. Among the travellers were 3 children and 1 pregnant woman. A few minutes later, S.M. confirmed that the travellers had been rescued and were brought to Gran Canaria.