The NGO Alarm Phone warns that at least 150 people are in danger on the migratory route to the Canary Islands. The organization, which has a telephone line that migrants in danger call, reports that the canoe left Niodior, Senegal, on October 21 and that it has suffered an engine failure. ”This means that from that moment on they have been adrift in extremely adverse weather conditions,” they add. The Archipelago has recorded significant rain this weekend and expects strong gusts of wind in the next few hours. Alarm Phone denounces that neither Spain nor Morocco have yet taken charge of the rescue and demands that all available means be activated immediately. ”There is no rescue operation underway,” they say in their X account.
To questions from Canary Islands NowMaritime Rescue has assured that the operation has been coordinated ”from the first moment” by Morocco, since the vessel has been located 400 miles from Gran Canaria and closer to Western Sahara, ”about 80 miles” . ”Both the Moroccan and Mauritanian authorities are monitoring and from Maritime Rescue we are issuing radio warnings to navigation, warning ships in the area to be alert,” they add.
Alarm Phone received the first call during the early hours of October 26, five days after the barge left Senegal. In this first notice, the migrants reported the number of occupants of the cayuco, the exit point and, in addition, they assured that the people were exhausted. According to the NGO, that same night they alerted Salvamento Marítimo de Las Palmas, providing them with the satellite phone number so that they could track the position of the boat.
Hours later, Alarm Phone assures that the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center (CCRM) in Madrid informed them that Morocco would take charge of the case. However, the NGO assures in a statement published on its website that Rabat admitted that they did not have any rescue device in the region and that, therefore, they had limited themselves to asking a merchant ship to search for the vessel.
”We urgently ask all the authorities involved to come to their aid. We demand safe passage and freedom of movement for all people,” emphasizes Alarm Phone, which also criticizes Moroccan rescue teams for ”lack of capacity and will to help people who are at the mercy of the wind and waves. in the Atlantic. The NGO also denounces that Spain has not provided help “despite having knowledge of the position and situation of the vessel, and despite being perfectly aware of the incapacity of the supposedly responsible authority.”
Meanwhile, Alarm Phone continues to try to contact the migrants traveling in the cayuco, but communications have not been successful in the last few hours.
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