22/11: Two boats in distress, one rescued to Spain, one returned to Tangier

23.11.2021 / 19:39 / Western Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 22nd November 2021

Case name: 2021_11_22-WM787

Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to two groups of travellers in distress between Morocco and Spain, one was rescued and brought to Spain, the others arrived back to Tangier on their own.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean

Summary On Monday the 22nd of November 2021, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of 16 travellers, two women and 14 men, in distress off the Moroccan westcoast. The travellers had left from Casablanca two days previous at 04.00 CET on a black rubber boat. We were not able to reach the phone of the travellers. At 14.47 CET we alerted the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo to the distress of the travellers. At 16.08 CET Salvamento informed us that a boat matching the description we had given had arrived to the Spanish shore. However, just after receiving this news we learned from the relative that the travellers had left in a convoy together with another boat, and that one boat thus remained missing. The second boat was a green rubber boat carrying 14 travellers. We were not able to identify this as one of the boats rescued by Salvamento Maritimo, but the following night we learned from the relative that the second boat had arrived back to Tangier by themselves.

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