18/12: 51 travellers, probably intercepted by the Moroccan navy in the Atlantic Sea

19.12.2021 / 21:49 / Atlantic

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 18th December 2021

Case name: 2021_12_18-WM814

Situation: 51 travellers in distress in the Atlantic Sea with one woman in labour on the boat, intercepted by the Moroccan navy.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Atlantic Sea.

Summary: On Saturday the 18th of December 2021, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of 51 travellers, including nine women, one of them pregnant, and a child, in distress in the Atlantic Sea. The travellers had left from Boujdour on a rubber boat and were heading towards the Canary Islands. We managed to reach the travellers and got their GPS position. We informed the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo about the distress case, passing on all the information we had. Soon after, the travellers called us back and told us that the pregnant woman had started having contractions. We stayed in contact with the travellers and updated Salvamento Maritimo about their situation and location as often as possible. Just after midnight the travellers told us that they were out of fuel and had lost their orientation. In the morning, we were informed by Savamento Maritimo that the travellers had been intercepted by the Moroccan navy.

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