Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 24th of August 2018
Case name: 2018_08_24-WM318
Situation: Boat carrying 5 people intercepted by the Moroccan navy and deported to Tiznit
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Friday the 24th of August at 7.44am CEST we were alerted to a boat of 5 people and at 7:58am we received their position. At 8:08am the boat called us to tell us that water was entering their boat and asked us to call the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo (SM). At 8:56am SM told us that they were not responsible for the boat as it was in Moroccan SAR zone, however we told them that it was in fact in common SAR zone. We called SM Madrid at 9:39am to inform them of the case, but they were already aware of the details from our previous emails. We were told that they had informed the Moroccan rescue authorities because the boat was in their zone. At 12:01pm the Moroccan rescue authorities confirmed to us that they were working on this case. At 3:49pm we spoke with the Moroccan rescue authorities who told us that the Moroccan Navy had intercepted a boat carrying 5 people in the area we had indicated at 10:38am. Over the next few hours we made numerous attempts to contact the people from the boat, and eventually on Tuesday the 28th of August we made contact and were told that the boat had been intercepted by the Moroccan navy and deported to Tiznit (Southern Morocco).