Vessel between Morocco and Spain, rescue unconfirmed

16.06.2015 / 19:14 / Western Mediterranean Sea, Morocco

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigation - 15th of June 2015

Case name: 2015_06_15-WM21
Situation: Distress situation in the Western Mediterranean Sea, contact to passengers lost
Status of WTM Investigation: Open
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea, near Morocco

Summary of the Cases: On Monday the 15th of June 2015, the Alarm Phone was contacted in the evening, at around 8.30pm, by a contact person in Morocco who informed our shift team about a vessel that had left on the same day at 4am from Cap Spartel/Morocco. He had lost contact to the 10 travellers and was worried about their well-being. The shift team reached out to the Spanish rescue agency Salvamento Maritimo who had, however, no knowledge of the vessel in question and had thus not conducted a rescue operation. After contacting the Moroccan Navy to enquire into their operations from the day, Salvamento Maritimo informed our shift team that the provided details of the vessel and its passengers did not match any of the vessels intercepted by the Moroccan Navy.

Despite several attempts to reach the passengers on the vessel and repeated calls to our contact person in Morocco, the fate of the passengers remains unknown. The Alarm Phone shift teams will follow up on this case and try to stay in touch with our contact person.

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