09/03: 42 travellers from Tangier, brought back to Morocco

10.03.2019 / 11:16 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 9th of March 2019

Case name: 2019_03_09-WM377
Situation: 42 travellers from Tangier brought back to Morocco
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case:

On Saturday, 9th of March, at 4:50am CET, we were informed about a boat in distress in the Strait of Gibraltar. We called the travellers at 4:52am. They had left from Tangier two hours earlier, but their engine had broken down and their boat was in a critical condition. According to them, they were still close to Morocco, and they asked us to inform MRCC Rabat. We couldn’t figure out their GPS position. We passed the telephone number of MRCC Rabat to the travellers and called the Moroccan authorities at 5:03am, but couldn’t reach anyone. At 5:05am we informed the Spanish rescue organisation Salvamento Marítimo in Tarifa, that promised to coordinate with MRCC Rabat. At 5:08am and 5:14am we had contact to the travellers again. They specified that they had left east of Tanger Med. At 5:18am we called Salvamento again to pass the new information. Afterwards, we couldn’t reach the travellers for a while. At 5:50am, we wrote an email to the respective authorities to document and emphasize the alert. At 6:12am Salvamento called the Alarm Phone, asking for news themselves as they had lost contact to the boat too. At 6:36am we called MRCC Rabat. The responding officer told us that the Marine Royale was informed and would still search for the boat. At 7:42am we finally reached the travellers. They confirmed that they had been rescued by the Moroccan Marine Royale and that everyone that was on board had arrived safely back to Morocco.
Credibility: UP DOWN 0
Layers »
  • 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

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