16/10: 53 travellers intercepted by the Moroccan navy and brought to Boujdour

17.10.2021 / 18:19 / Atlantic Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 16th October 2021

Case name: 2021_10_16-WM755

Situation: 53 travellers in distress in the Atlantic Sea, intercepted by the Moroccan navy and brought to Boujdour.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Atlantic Sea
Summary On Saturday the 16th of October 2021, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of 53 travellers, 12 women, 39 men and two children in distress in the Atlantic Sea. The travellers had left the same morning at around 04.00 CEST from Laayoune, heading towards the Canary Islands. We were not able to establish direct contact to the travellers and were therefore also not able to get their exact GPS position. The relative had as well lost contact to the boat. However, we forwarded all the information we had to the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo. In a later call to Salvamento Maritimo at 17.45 CEST they told us that a Spanish aircraft had spotted the travellers and that the Moroccan navy would carry out the rescue operation. Later in the evening the relative informed us that the travellers had been intercepted by the Moroccan navy and brought to Boujdour. This was confirmed by the Moroccan rescue authorities.

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