06/05: 37 persons rescued to Almería

07.05.2016 / 14:20 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 6th of May 2016

Case name: 2016_05_06-WM92
Situation: 37 persons rescued to Almería
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Friday, the 6th of May 2016, at 11.08am, the Alarm Phone
was alerted to a boat in distress on the way from Morocco to Almería with about 34 persons on board, including 3 children and 10 women. The contact person was not on the boat, but in Morocco. He had been in contact with the boat at 10am and was not sure for how long they had been at sea. We could not establish direct contact with the travellers, as the phone connection did not work, even though we had two contact numbers from people on the boat. At 2.30pm, we contacted the Spanish maritime rescue agency Salvamento Maritimo (S.M.) in Almería about the case. They told us that they were working on another case in the area and that it might be the same case. They asked us to call them back three hours later. We told our contact person that we had informed S.M. Almería. Out contact person gave us more precise information concerning the number of people and from when and where they had left Morocco. It seemed to be the same case as the one S.M. was working on already. At 6pm S.M. informed us that they had found the boat an hour earlier about 17 miles off the Spanish island of Alborán, mid-way between Morocco and Spain. All passengers were doing well and would be brought to Almería, we were told. We forwarded the information to the contact persons, asking him to inform us once he would get the rescue confirmed by his contacts among the travellers. We also called the Red Cross and contacts in Almería to find out if the boat had really arrived there. On Saturday, at 11.20am, we came across a message of S.M. on Twitter stating that they had rescued 37 persons from a boat East of Alborán and that they had transferred them to Almería. A local newspaper in Almería also mentioned the case and the successful rescue operation.
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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