05/06: 67 travellers from Laayoune – fate unknown.

06.06.2021 / 12:43 / Atlantic

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations –5th June 2021

Case name: 2021_06_05 -WM627
Situation: 67 travellers from Laayoune – fate unknown.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Atlantic

Summary of the Case:
At 23:18h CEST the night of Friday the 5th of June, the Alarm Phone was alerted by a relative of one of the travellers to a boat in distress carrying 67 people, including 12 women. The boat had departed from Laayoune the previous night. After failing to reach the travellers ourselves, at 00:29h our shift team alerted the Spanish Search and Rescue Organization Salvamento Maritimo (SM). In the early afternoon of the following day, the relative who first alerted us called us and gave us a GPS position from the previous evening, we immediately passed on the information to SM. In the days that followed we called SM and the Moroccan rescue authorities several times a day, trying to find information on the fate of this boat, unfortunately from their search and rescue operations they were never able to find this boat. The relative who alerted us similarly did not have any news. On the 12th of June SM informed us that due to bad weather and lack of resources they would no longer look for this boat but focus on another cases. Sadly, we did not find out the fate of these travellers and have to fear the worst.

Twitter Thread:
12.06.2021
14:51 - https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1403696501365166082?s=19

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