25/06: 12 travellers in the Alboran intercepted by the Moroccan navy.

26.06.2021 / 18:22 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 25th June 2021
Case name: 2021_06_27-WM633
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to boat with 12 travellers 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
On Friday the 25th of June 2021 the Alarm Phone shift team was informed by relatives about a boat on its way to Spain. There were 12 travellers onboard the boat which had left from close to AlHoceima the previous day at 2am local time. At 10.13 CEST we called the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo, asking if they had any news about a group matching the description. They could only tell us that many boats had arrived recently, but were not able to give us more specific information. In the meantime, we were trying to get more information about the boat from the family, but they had no further information about the group of travellers such as the number of women and children or any contact details of the boat. They had not heard from the travellers since they set off.
At 15.57 CEST we called the local department of Salvamento Maritimo in Almeria. They did not know about this boat and could also not match the information with any landings they were aware of. Without more information we were unable to intervene further.
The following day we learned from the family that the travellers had been intercepted by the Moroccan navy and brought back to Morocco.

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