25/12: 27 people (including 7 children and 3 infants) arrived on a Spanish island close to Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, intercepted by MR

Verified

  Stranded

26.12.2018 / 09:30 / Western Mediterrean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 25th of December 2018
Case name: 2018_12_25-WM360
Situation: 27 people (including 7 children and 3 infants) arrived on a Spanish island close to Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, intercepted by MR
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: At 5:29am CET on Tuesday the 25th of December the Alarmphone shift team were alerted to a group of 27 travellers (including 17 women, 7 children, and 3 infants) who had arrived on a Spanish island close to Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera / Badis at around 5am. Their phone was no longer working, but the contact person informed us that everyone was okay. At 6:31am our contact person updated us telling us that the travellers needed help as it was getting cold. The shift team was unable to establish telephone contact with the people on the island.
Later that evening at 8:15pm we received an update from the contact person that the Marine Royale had returned the people to Morocco.
Credibility: UP DOWN 0
Layers »
  • Border police patrols     
    While the exact location of patrols is of course constantly changing, this line indicates the approximate boundary routinely patrolled by border guards’ naval assets. In the open sea, it usually correspond to the outer extent of the contiguous zone, the area in which “State may exercise the control necessary to prevent infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws” (UNCLOS, art. 33). Data source: interviews with border police officials.
  • Coastal radars     
    Approximate radar beam range covered by coastal radars operating in the frame of national marine traffic monitoring systems. The actual beam depends from several different parameters (including the type of object to be detected). Data source: Finmeccanica.
  • Exclusive Economic Zone     
    Maritime area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea in which the coastal state exercises sovereign rights for the purposes of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources, whether living or non-living, the seabed and its subsoil and the superjacent waters. Its breadth is 200 nautical miles from the straight baselines from which the territorial sea is measured (UNCLOS, Arts. 55, 56 and 57). Data source: Juan Luis Suárez de Vivero, Atlas of the European Seas and Oceans
  • Frontex operations     
    Frontex has, in the past few years, carried out several sea operations at the maritime borders of the EU. The blue shapes indicate the approximate extend of these operations. Data source: Migreurop Altas.
  • Mobile phone coverage     
    Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network coverage. Data source: Collins Mobile Coverage.
  • Oil and gas platforms     
    Oil and gas platforms in the Mediterranean. Data source:
  • Search and Rescue Zone     
    An area of defined dimensions within which a given state is has the responsibility to co-ordinate Search and Rescue operations, i.e. the search for, and provision of aid to, persons, ships or other craft which are, or are feared to be, in distress or imminent danger. Data source: IMO availability of search and rescue (SAR) services - SAR.8/Circ.3, 17 June 2011.
  • Territorial Waters     
    A belt of sea (usually extending up to 12 nautical miles) upon which the sovereignty of a coastal State extends (UNCLOS, Art. 2). Data source: Juan Luis Suárez de Vivero, Atlas of the European Seas and Oceans

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