07/06: 11 travellers from Cap Spartel brought back to Morocco

08.06.2018 / 12:43 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 07th of June 2018

Case name: 2018_06_07-WM254
Situation: 11 travellers from Cap Spartel brought back to Morocco
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case:

On Thursday, 7th of June, at 5:24am CEST, we were alerted to a boat in distress from Cap Spartel on its way to Spain, carrying 11 travellers. The rubber boat was losing air. We contacted the boat at 5:30am.
Afterwards we tried to locate the boat and received a GPS position at 8:20am. We called the Spanish Rescue authority Salvamento Marítimo at 8:30am and informed them about the boat in distress. They had a rescue asset close to the position of the boat, but refused to launch a search and rescue operation, as the position was in Moroccan waters. As the boat was losing a lot of air, we called the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center in Rabat and requested the immediate rescue of the boat. At 12:00am we called MRCC Rabat for news, but they didn’t provide any information. At 1:00pm we were informed that the Moroccan Marine Royale had picked up 5 boats in the area, but we couldn’t identify our boat among them. At 3:05pm a contact person confirmed the rescue of our boat by the Moroccan Marine.

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