30/07: 3 boats from Tangier: 2 intercepted to Morocco, 1 returned on its own

31.07.2018 / 13:14 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations –30th of July 2018

Case name: 2018_07_30-WM301
Situation: 3 boats from Tangier, 2 intercepted to Morocco, 1 returned on its own
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case:

On Monday, 30th of July, the Alarm Phone was alerted to 3 boats in the Strait of Gibraltar / Western Mediterranean. 2 boats were picked up by the Moroccan Marine Royale, 1 boat returned to Morocco on its own. We were alerted to a 4th boat that had been intercepted eventually, but didn’t have sufficient information to intervene.

Case 1: At 11:26am CEST, a contact person informed us about a boat in distress that had left from Tanger towards Spain, carrying 5 people. We managed to reach the travellers at 11:43am. At 12:12am we received their GPS position. At 12:18am we called Salvamento Marítimo and alerted them to the boat. At 12:36am we received a new position of the boat that we also passed to Salvamento at 12:43am. The Spanish rescue authority had already informed MRCC Rabat about the case as the boat was in Moroccan waters. We stayed in contact with the boat and received an updated position at 1:45pm. We informed MRCC Rabat at 1:49pm via call and email. At 2:08pm the travellers called and confirmed that they had been picked up by the Moroccan Marine Royale.

Case 2: At 11:50am we were alerted to a boat that had left at 3am from Cap Spartel towards Spain, carrying 8 people. We didn’t manage to establish a connection to the boat. In the ongoing, we tried to find out alternative phone numbers on board via the contact person and checked on rescue information of both Moroccan and Spanish agencies. At 10:45pm the contact person informed us that the travellers had returned to Morocco on their own.

Case 3: At 3:12pm we were contacted about a boat from Tangier towards Spain carrying 5 people, only men. In the following hours, we tried to establish a connection to the boat, but didn’t reach them. At 5:50pm we called the Spanish rescue authority Salvamento Marítimo to inform them. They couldn’t identify if this boat was among rescued ones as we didn’t have neither position of the boat nor phone connection to the travellers. Only the following day we received the information that the boat had been intercepted by the Moroccan Marine Royale.

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