30/06: 10 travelers on two boats leave from Al Hoceima, arrive to Motril

01.07.2021 / 17:23 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations –30th June 2021

Case name: 2021_06_30-WM638
Situation: Two boats leave from Al Hoceima, Morocco, carrying approx. 5 people each, and arrive to Motril, Spain.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case:
On the 30th of June 2021, our shift team was alerted to two boats, carrying around five people each, that had left from Al Hoceima, Morocco at 10h00 CEST on the same day. The only information we had was that one of the boats was a blue wooden one. We did not have a GPS location from them. After trying to reach them without success, we alerted the Spanish Search and rescue organization Salvamento Marítimo (SM) in Almería by phone call and e-mail around midnight.

As there was no GPS location of the missing boats, SM informed us that they did not launch a Search and Rescue operation.

On the 1st of July, we received the information from the families of the travelers, that they had arrived in Motril, Spain. We do not know if they have been rescued or if they arrived autonomously.

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