05/11: Boat with 50 people going to the Canary Islands in distress

06.11.2015 / 13:14 / Western Mediterranean Sea, Morocco

Case name: 2015_11_5-WM66‬‬
Situation: 50 persons in pateras

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: ‪On Thursday, the 5th of November 2015, the Alarm Phone was alerted to one case in the Western Mediterranean. ‬
At shortly before 11.30pm we received two calls from different Moroccan contact person, who informed us about a case of approximately 50 persons with at least 3 children among them on a 9meter long pirogue that had left from Morocco two days earlier at approximately 5am from El Ayoun/ Cabo Boujdour to Canary Islands/Las Palmas. The contact persons were worried, bacuse the travellers had called them around 7pm, saying that they were lost. We could not reach the travellers. We checked on different social networks and saw that the case was already known within solidarity groups and that a rescue operation had started already. The Spanish Rescue agency Salvamento Maritimo on Las Palmas told us that they had been involved in the rescue operation, but had stoppped, as the boat had passed into Moroccan waters and was now being dealt with by the Moroccan authorities. We tried several times to get in touch with the travellers, but without success. We had to wait until Friday afternoon at 2.30pm until we got a final confirmation that the travellers were safe and back in Morocco.
Last update: 13:23 Nov 11, 2015
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

Related Reports

21:24 Dec 17, 2021 / Atlantic Kms
16/12: ~30 travellers rescued and brought to Lanzarote
21:47 Dec 19, 2021 / Atlantic Kms
18/12: 47 travellers arrived to Fuerteventura
13:26 Oct 21, 2021 / Atlantic Sea Kms
20/10: Around 51 travellers arrived to Fuerteventura