29/08: 19 travellers intercepted and brought to Moroccan police station

30.08.2023 / 21:53 / Western Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 29th of August 2023
Case name: 2023_08_29-WM065
Situation: 19 travellers intercepted in the Western Mediterranean Sea and brought to the police station in Tétouan
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On the 29th of August 2023, just after midnight, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of 19 travellers who had left from El Jebha, Morocco, on the 27th of August during the night. The shift team relayed all the information to the Spanish search and rescue organization Salvamento Maritimo and tried to contact the travellers without success. Throughout the day, the shift team continued to contact the travellers but could not reach them, and tried to find out if the Spanish rescue authorities had rescued a boat matching this boat. In the evening of the same day, the relative informed Alarm Phone that the 19 travellers had been intercepted by the Moroccan Marine Royale and been brought to the police station in Tétouan, Morocco.

Last update: 15:35 Jun 05, 2024

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