12/08: 5 travellers probably rescued by Spanish Salvamento Maritimo

13.09.2017 / 19:45 / Western Mediterranean Sea

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

Case name: 2017_09_12-WM159
Situation: 5 travellers probably rescued and brought to Spain
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean

Summary of the Cases: On Tuesday the 12th of September at 7.48am a contact person alerted the Alarm Phone to a boat carrying five travellers, four men and one woman, and forwarded us their number. They had left from a beach close to Tangier at 2am local time on a boat without an engine. The travellers were still alright, and didn’t want the coast guard to be called yet. At 9am we talked directly with the travellers who still sounded calm. Shortly after, the contact person asked us to call the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo (SM) as the travellers were too tired to continue. At 9.57am the travellers informed us that they could see an orange rescue vessel, and that the vessel had spotted them. However, the only orange rescue vessel that we could track, appeared to be too far west to be approaching the travellers. At 10.39am we contacted SM and passed on the information we had. After this, it was no longer possible to establish a direct contact to the travellers. At 12.25 we called SM again, and they told us that they had rescued two boats, each with four men and one woman. However, neither we nor the contact person could reach the travellers to get a final confirmation that they had arrived safely.

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