26/6: Boat capsized during an intervention of the Moroccan Navy, 3 persons died ‬

27.06.2016 / 13:10 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 26th of June 2016
Case name: 2016_06_26-WM103
Situation: Boat capsized during Marine Royale intervention, 3 persons died
Status of WTM Investigation< /i>: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Sunday, the 26th of June 2016, at 8.35am the Alarm Phone received a call from a contact person in Morocco. He informed us about a case of interception in the Western Mediterranean with 9 passengers involved (5 men and 4 women). He told us that the travellers had left at 3am from Tanger med and that they had been intercepted by the Moroccan Navy, the Marine Royale. The brother of our contact person had been among the travellers and had apparently been pushed into the water. Our contact person was worried, as he could not reach his brother anymore. He provided us with a telephone number of one of the travellers. At 6.30pm, after several failed attempts, we finally reached the contact who had been on the boat. He told us that he was back in Morocco, but that not everyone had survived: While 7 persons had been rescued, 3 other had died.
At 7.30pm, we spoke to another contact who could provide more details on what had happened: He told us that they had been 11 person who had wanted to cross, but that the Moroccan police had arrested three of them (but had released them later on), so that they were 8 passengers on the boat. He further described that the Marine Royale had intercepted their rubber boat in international waters. He explained that it was very windy and their boat unstable. When the Marine Royale approached them, the boat turned over. According to the contact person, the Marine Royale did little to assist the persons in the water. One woman and 2 men from Senegal died as a result. The survivors were brought back to Morocco. The contact person also sent us a written report via Whats App, which we published as part of our statement on the incident, demanding an investigation into what had happened and mourning the dead:

Last update: 15:02 Oct 27, 2017

Sources

https://alarmphone.org/en/2016/06/27/statement-26th-of-june-2016-three-deaths-in-the-straight-of-gibraltar-caused-by-the-arrival-of-the-marine-royal-moroccan-navy/?post_type_release_type=post

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