30/09: 7 persons left from Tanger Med, 6 rescued by Marine Royale, 1 died on board

01.10.2017 / 16:36 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 30th of September 2017

Case name: 2017_09_30-WM164
Situation: 7 persons left from Tanger Med, 6 rescued by Marine Royale, 1 died on board
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Saturday the 30th of September 2017 at 10.25am, a contact person informed the Alarm Phone about 7 people in distress at sea, who had departed two hours earlier from the beach in Tanger Med/Morocco in the direction of Spain. He provided us with a phone number and suggested that they might still be close to the Moroccan coast. At 10.38am, we reached the travellers via phone and they told us that water was entering their boat and that they could barely move, being only equipped with paddles. They immediately asked for helped and we asked several times if we should also call the Moroccan Marine Royale. They said yes, because they were very much afraid to die. After another conversation with the contact person, we decided to call the Moroccan Marine Royal at 11am, who promised to send a rescue boat. At 11.20am, the contact person confirmed to us that he saw a Search and Rescue vessel leaving the port of Tanger. At 11.25am, we called the travellers again and informed them that a rescue vessel was on its way to them. Afterwards, we were not able to reach them anymore. Thus, at about noon, we wrote an email to the Spanish rescue organization Salvamento Maritimo and to the UNHCR Spain, alerting and providing them with all the information we had received so far. At 1.15pm, the contact person informed us that he had heard from other persons that the Moroccan Marine Royale had rescued the travellers. In order to verify this information, we called the Marine Royale at 2pm and they confirmed to us that the travellers from this boat had indeed been rescued. However, later on, our contact person spoke to the travellers and was told that one person died on the boat and that his lifleless body had fallen into the water during the ongoing rescue operation of the Moroccan Marine Royale. The dead person was left behind in the sea.
Last update: 08:31 Oct 29, 2017
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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