12/07: boat with 35 persons from Morocco rescued to Tarifa

13.07.2017 / 11:36 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 12th of July 2017

Case name: 2017_07_12-WM147
Situation: boat with 35 persons from Morocco rescued to Tarifa
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Wednesday, the 12th of July 2017, at 6pm, 2 contact persons informed us about a boat with 35 persons (28 men and 7 women) that had left from Morocco at 10pm CET. After 1.30 am CET they had lost touch with the boat. We immediately called Salvamento Maritimo (S.M.) in Almeria. They already knew about the case and a helicopter had already found the boat. A rescue operation was ongoing. They told us to call them back. To be sure, we also send an e-mail to S.M. and the UNHCR. We also nformed our contact persons about the ongoing rescue operation and followed a search and rescue vessel on Vesselfinder, which left Almeria in direction of the area where the vessel had been spotted.
At 8.10pm we called back S.M., who told us that the operation was still ongoing and that the passengers would be brought to Spain. At 9.30 our contact persons confirmed that the people had been rescued to Almeria and that all of them were safe

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