03/07: 2 boats in distress returned to Morocco by own forces, one dead person

04.07.2018 / 21:39 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 3rd of July 2018

Case name: 2018_07_03-WM276
Situation: 2 boats in distress returned to Morocco by own forces, one dead person
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Tuesday, 3rd of July, Alarm Phone was in contact with two boats in distress from Morocco towards Spain. Both returned to Morocco by own forces. In one case, a young man died afterwards in the hospital.

At 8:03am CEST we received a call from a boat in distress that had left from Cap Spartel towards Spain at 1am local time. The group consisted of 5 men and 2 women. We couldn‘t find out their GPS position. We called the Spanish rescue authority Salvamento Marítimo at 9:49am that informed us that the Moroccan Marine Royale would already perform the rescue operation. At 10:05am we called the group again. They were still on the water and no rescue boat was nearby. At 10:50am we called Salvamento Marítimo again and informed them that no rescue boat had arrived. Afterwards we couldn’t reach the boat anymore. At 12:13am we called Salvamento Marítimo for news. The authority informed us again that a rescue operation by Marine Royale would be ongoing. As we couldn’t confirm the information with the travellers directly, we called Salvamento during the next hours several times, but never received a final rescue confirmation. At 6:23pm we called to MRCC Rabat, that couldn’t confirm the rescue neither. At 7:20pm a local contact person informed us that the travellers had returned to Moroccan shore themselves.

At 3:14pm CEST we were contacted about a boat in distress that had left from Cap Spartel towards Tarifa/ Spain at 3am local time, 14 travellers on board. We couldn’t establish a connection to the boat until 4:51pm, when the travellers informed us that they were still at sea but trying to return to Morocco, as some of them were not in the physical condition to continue. In the following hours, we tried to find out the GPS position of the boat, but we couldn’t reach the travellers again. At 10:18pm a contact person informed us that they had returned to Morocco and some of them were hospitalized. The following day, we were informed that one 19-years old had passed away in the hospital.

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