23/11: 45 travellers intercepted and brought back to Morocco

24.11.2021 / 19:48 / Atlantic

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 23rd November 2021

Case name: 2021_11_23-WM790

Situation: 45 travellers in distress in the Atlantic Sea, intercepted by the Moroccan navy and brought back to land.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Atlantic Sea.

Summary: On Tuesday the 23 of November 2021, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of 45 travellers, including seven women and two children, in distress in the Atlantic Sea. The travellers had left the previous morning at around 02.00 CET from Tarfaya on a grey rubber boat. We immediately managed to reach the travellers, who gave us their PS position. They also told us that water was entering their boat and they were in urgent need of rescue. After receiving this information, we alerted the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo to the distress of the travellers. The relative informed us later in the afternoon that the engine of the boat was not working well. In the evening Salvamento Maritimo informed us that a boat matching this description had been intercepted by the Moroccan navy. The following day they relative as well confirmed that the travellers were back in Morocco.

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