17/08: One man attempts to swim to Spain, returns to Morocco

18.08.2021 / 10:48 / Western Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 17th August 2021

Case name: 2021_08_17-WM672

Situation: One man returned by himself to Morocco after attempting to swim across the strait of Gibraltar.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean

Summary On Tuesday the 17th of August 2021 in the evening, the Alarm Phone shift team was called by a traveller in distress in the Strait of Gibraltar. The man had attempted to swim across the Strait, and estimated that he was around 1 km away from the Moroccan shore. He told us that he had left three hours earlier from a beach east of Tangier. We immediately called both the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo as well as the Moroccan rescue coordination center and gave them the information we had about the distress situation. Throughout the night we were no longer able to reach the traveller. The next day neither Moroccan nor Spanish rescue authorities had news about the fate of the traveller. We were informed that the Moroccan navy had been searching for him without result. In the afternoon we managed to reach the traveller who told us that he had returned by himself to Morocco and that he was safe and alright.

Last update: 11:11 Mar 29, 2022

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