15/12: 55 travellers intercepted by the Moroccan navy in the Atlantic Sea

16.12.2021 / 21:18 / Atlantic

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 15th December 2021

Case name: 2021_12_15-WM805

Situation: 55 travellers in distress in the Atlantic Sea, intercepted by the Moroccan navy.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Atlantic Sea

Summary: On Wednesday the 15th of December 2021, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of 55 travellers, 37 men, 15 women and three children, in distress in the Atlantic Sea. The travellers had left the same night from Laayoune on a blue rubber boat, heading towards Fuerteventura. We managed to reach the travellers, who told us that they had no food or drinking water left and that the children were sick. We also managed to get their GPS position, and immediately alerted the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo to the distress situation. We stayed in contact with the travellers and relayed their updated GPS positions as well as information about their situation to Salvamento Maritimo. At 17.34 CET the travellers told us that they had run out of fuel. At 18.22 CET Salvamento Maritimo confirmed that they had localised the travellers and sent a rescue asset to provide assistance. In the early hours of the morning, however, we learned from the relative that the travellers had been intercepted by the Moroccan navy and brought back.

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