05/02 Alarm Phone alerted to vessel in distress in the Western Med, returned to Morocco

Verified

  In Distress

03.05.2017 / 08:13 / Western Mediterranean Sea, Morocco

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 2nd of May 2017

Case name: 2017_05_02-WM137
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 1 emergency situation in the Western Med
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Tuesday the 2nd of May 2017, the WatchTheMed Alarm Phone was called at 6.01am by a group of travellers in the Western Mediterranean Sea. They informed us that they were 6 people in total who had left Tangier/Morocco two hours earlier. They clearly stated that they were in a serious situation of distress and asked us to notify the authorities, even if it meant being returned to Morocco. We then alerted the Spanish Search and Rescue Organisation Salvamento Maritimo to the distress situation and they confirmed that they would start rescue proceedings. We tried several times to get in touch with the group of travellers again, but were not successful. At 8.23am Salvamento confirmed that the boat had been discovered by the Moroccan Navy. The 6 people were then returned to Morocco. Later on, we learned that they were amongst 54 people who had been put onto a Moroccan police bus and were brought to an unknown destination.
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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