17/06: 11 travellers had to return to Morocco

18.06.2017 / 14:23 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 17th of June 2017

Case name: 2017_06_17-WM140
Situation: 11 travellers had to return to Morocco
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Saturday the 17th of June 2017, at 1.16 am, the WatchTheMed Alarm Phone was alerted to a boat in the Western Mediterranean by a contact person. 11 travellers had left to Spain from Morocco, close to Tangier, at 8pm local time. We tried to reach out to the travellers but they did not answer the phone. At 2.47am the contact person asked us to call the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo (SM) to ask for help. He also had no news from his contacts on the boat and he told us that the boat was without an engine.
At 2.53am we called SM about the case. At 7:05am we called them again. However, SM like us had not succeeded to reach the travellers. They told us that the Moroccan Marine had also been looking for the boat in question, but had not found them so far. At 9am, an Alarmphone member from Morocco informed us that the travellers had returned to Morocco paddling, as water had started to enter the boat. There was a hole in it. Our Alarmphone member had spoken to the travellers in person.
We informed SM that the travellers had returned to Morocco.

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