13/02: 5 travellers from Al Hoceima intercepted by the Moroccan Navy

14.02.2021 / 01:56 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 13th February 2021
Case name: 2021_02_13-WM569
Situation: 5 travellers in distress in the Alboran Sea, intercepted by the Moroccan Navy and brought back to Morocco.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean

Summary of the case: On Saturday the 13th of February at 21.52 CET, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of five travellers who had left from Al Hoceima the same morning at 07.40 CET on a green boat. The travellers had three phones on board, and even though we continuously tried calling all three phones and messaging them on WhatsApp, we never managed to establish a direct contact to the travellers. Their relatives had also not received any news from them since the morning. At 22.40 we sent an email to the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo (SM), forwarding all the information we had. We tried alerting SM by phone as well, but were initially not able to reach them. Only at 00.17 CET did we manage to reach SM who told us that they had no news about the travellers. During the night we were not able to get any more information. The next morning at 05.17 CET, however, the relative informed us that the travellers had been intercepted and brought back to Morocco. They had been arrested by the Moroccan police, but apart from this they were, according to the relative, all okay.

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