26/07: 53 travellers probably intercepted in the Atlantic

27.07.2022 / 10:17 / Atlantic

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 26th July 2022

Case name: 2022_07_26-ATL077

Situation: 53 travellers in distress, probably intercepted by the Moroccan navy.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Atlantic Ocean

Summary of the case: On Tuesday the 26th of July 2022, the Alarm Phone was alerted by a relative to a group of 53 travellers, 36 men, 14 women and three children, in distress in the Atlantic Ocean. The travellers had left from around Tan Tan the previous morning on a grey rubber boat. The relative had lost contact to the boat at 03.00 CEST and we were also not able to reach the travellers initially. However, in the evening they picked up their phone and gave us their GPS position. They told us that their engine was still running but they were almost out of petrol. According to the travellers one of the people onboard had been unconscious for around three hours, and they needed urgent rescue. We alerted the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo to the distress of the travellers. At 23.30 CEST Salvamento Maritimo told us that the boats had been intercepted by the Moroccan navy; however, the Moroccan rescue authorities could not confirm this. We continued calling the travellers but they were no longer reachable. However, the following afternoon we learned that the Moroccan navy had rescued a boat that almost fitted the description we had been given.

Last update: 11:58 Aug 07, 2023

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