17/05: Group of travellers attempting to swim across the Strait of Gibraltar

18.05.2021 / 20:41 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 17th May 2021
Case name: 2021_05_17-WM609
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted a group of travellers attempting to reach mainland Spain swimming. All travellers were rescued.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean

Summary of the case:
On Monday the 17th of May 2021 in the morning, we were alerted by a relative to a group of travellers attempting to swim across the Strait of Gibraltar from Morocco to Algeciras. It was not possible for us to find out exactly where the travellers were, or even at what time they had left and from where. At 08.15 CEST we called the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo and gave them the information we had. At 09.15 CEST the relative informed us that they had also been in contact with Salvamento Maritimo, and that Salvamento Maritimo had confirmed to them that they were conducting a search and rescue operation. At 10.45 CEST the relative informed us that all the travellers had been rescued and were now in police custody. They confirmed that everyone had survived the dangerous journey.

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