04/05 Boat in distress carrying 12 people from Tangier/Morocco, rescued to Spain

05.05.2018 / 23:08 / Western Mediterranean, Morocco/Spain

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 04th of May 2018

Case name: 2018_05_04-WM223
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to emergency situation in the Western Med
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Friday the 4th of May 2018, the Alarm Phone shift team was contacted at 1.04am from a person in Morocco, but the connection was bad and only few information could be gathered. At 1.40am, this contact person told us that the boat had started several hours earlier from Tangier/Morocco. There were 12 travellers on the boat. We tried to reach the people on the boat directly several times but were unable to connect to them. We spoke to the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo (SM) at 2.55am. They had received information about the case but no GPS position of the boat. We informed them that we would try to localise the boat. At 3.30am we received a GPS position directly from the boat and passed it immediately on to SM. We did the same when we received an updated GPS position at 4.06am. At 4.35am we once again passed updated coordinates to SM and they told us that they were only about 10 minutes away from the location. At 4.55am, the people on the boat confirmed that they had been rescued by Salvamento Maritimo and were being brought to Tarifa/Spain.

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