02/09 Fifty-five people in distress in the Western Med, rescued to Spain

03.09.2018 / 18:04 / Western Mediterranean, Morocco/Spain

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 2nd of September 2018

Case name: 2018_09_02-WM322
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to emergency situations in the Western Med
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Sunday, the 2nd of September 2018, the Alarm Phone was contacted at 4.26pm CEST by a contact person who informed us about a missing boat. It had left at around midnight local time from Nador and carried 55 people, including 5 women. We tried to reach the travellers but were unable to do so. We informed the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo (SM) at 5pm about the case. They informed us that they were already searching for this boat since the morning. At 7.13pm we spoke to them again and they confirmed the rescue of 52 people but not of the 55 people. They had informed MRCC Rabat to the case. We called the Moroccan authorities at 7.21pm but they had no information about this case. At 9.22pm, our contact person confirmed that it was the boat that SM had rescued earlier during the day – there were only 52 people on the boat. We then informed both the Spanish and Moroccan authorities.

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