23/03: 9 travellers brought back to Morocco

24.03.2018 / 12:57 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 23rd of March 2018

Case name: 2018_03_23-WM215
Situation: 9 travellers brought back to Morocco
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case:

On Friday, 23rd of March, at 07:28am CET, we were informed by a contact person about a motorized rubber boat in distress that had left during the night from Tangier towards Tarifa/Spain, carrying 9 people. We couldn’t establish a phone connection to the boat, and the contact person had lost contact with them around 4:00am. At 08:35am we called the Spanish search and rescue authority Salvamento Maritimo and informed them about the boat. We also sent an email to the respective authorities to document the alert. Afterwards, we continued in our attempts to reach the boat. At 10:28am we called Salvamento Maritimo again and they informed us that the boat had been located close to Tangier Port and the Moroccan Marine Royale would already conduct the rescue operation. At 1:12pm we called the Marine Royale that confirmed the ongoing operation. However, we were unable to establish whether this boat was indeed the boat in question. We continued to try to reach the travellers, but we couldn’t confirm their arrival in Morocco until the next morning at 08:20am, when the contact person informed us that the people had all been rescued by the Moroccan Navy and brought to the police.

Credibility:

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