Boat with 9 persons on board intercepted by Moroccan Marine

02.09.2015 / 23:04 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations, 1st of September 2015

Case name: 2015_09_01-WM49
Situation: Boat with 9 persons intercepted by Moroccan Marine
Status of WTM Investigations: Concluded
Place of Incidents: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Tuesday, the 1st of September 2015, the Alarm Phone was alerted to a distress situation in the Western Mediterranean Sea. At 11.00am a contact person called the shift team about a boat carrying 8 persons who had left from Tangier, Morocco and were moving toward Spain. We informed the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo (SM) and they promised to look for the boat. In a second call, the contact person told us that the travellers saw a boat of the SM and a boat of the Moroccan Navy at the same time. She also told us that the Moroccans attacked the boat with a knife and that one person jumped into the water. At 12.00pm the contact person called us again to inform us that the travellers had been intercepted by the Moroccan Navy.

Last update: 17:51 Sep 15, 2015

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