10/08: Boat with 5 travellers assumed to be rescued in the Western Mediterranean

11.08.2023 / 20:56 / Western Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 10th of August 2023
Case name: 2023_08_10-WM049
Situation: A boat with 5 travellers is assumed to be rescued to Almeria, Spain.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean

Summary of the Case: On the 10th of August 2023, a relative alerted the Alarmphone to a boat in distress in the Western Mediterranean Sea. The Alarmphone shift team could not establish direct contact to the five travellers who had departed from Al Hoceima, Morocco, on the 9th of August in a rubber boat. Still, the shift team alerted the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo to the boat, passing on all the information they had. In the afternoon, the shift team called Salvamento Maritimo and learnt that a Frontex plane had spotted a boat with four people, but it was not clear if it had been the same boat. During the night, a rescue operation was launched and in the morning, the travellers were rescued to Almeria, Spain – it is still not entirely clear whether it is the same boat that the relative alerted the Alarmphone to but we sincerely hope that the five people have arrived in Spain safely.
Last update: 15:19 Jun 05, 2024
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

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