12/02: Two boats intercepted by the Moroccan navy in the Atlantic Sea

Verified

  In Distress   Interception

13.02.2022 / 08:17 / Atlantic

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 12th February 2022

Case name: 2022_02_12-ATL032

Situation: Two boats in distress in the Atlantic Sea, both intercepted by the Moroccan navy.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Atlantic Sea

Summary: On Saturday the 12th of February 2022, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a convoy of two rubber boats in distress in the Atlantic Sea. One boat was carrying 59 travellers, including 17 women and three children, while the other boat was carrying 58 travellers, including 14 women and two children. The two boats had left together from Boujdour the same morning at around 02.00 CET. We managed to reach the travellers of one of the boats who told us that their engine had stopped working at 22.40 CET and that they were now adrift. The weather conditions were also getting worse with high waves. We managed to get the GPS position from both boats and immediately alerted the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo, forwarding all the information we had. Throughout the night we stayed in contact with the boats and updated Salvamento Maritimo with their positions when possible. As time passed, we could hear that the situation got more and more urgent and we learned that the boats had started taking in water, that the travellers had no life jackets and were exhausted and desperate. After 07.00 CET we lost contact to both boats. At 11.27 CET Salvamento Maritimo informed us that both boats had been intercepted by the Moroccan navy. This was soon after confirmed by the Moroccan rescue authorities as well as the relative of the travellers.
Credibility: UP DOWN 0
Layers »
  • 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

Related Reports

20:28 Apr 18, 2023 / Atlantic Ocean Kms
17/04: 28 travellers picked up by the Moroccan navy in the Atlantic
17:03 Dec 09, 2015 / Western Mediterranean Sea Kms
7/12 Alarm Phone alerted to deadly shipwreck in Western Med, 11 bodies found
15:47 Mar 28, 2020 / Western Mediterranean Kms
27/03 35 people left from Dahkla, Western Sahara heading for the Canary
07:41 Feb 06, 2022 / Atlantic Kms
05/02: Two boats intercepted by the Moroccan navy in the Atlantic Sea
14:35 Jun 25, 2022 / Atlantic Kms
24/06: Convoy of three boats intercepted by the Moroccan navy in the Atlantic