13/10: 7 travellers rescued to Cadiz

14.10.2017 / 10:43 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 13th of October 2017

Case name: 2017_10_13-WM167
Situation: 7 travellers rescued by Salvamento Maritimo to Cadiz
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean

Summary of the Cases: On Friday the 13th of October at 5.11pm we received a direct distress call from a Moroccan number. The call was interrupted immediately, and when we called back the connection was bad, and all we could hear was the wind in the background. Through a contact person in Morocco we learned that they were seven travellers who had left at 1pm local time from a beach near Tangier, heading for Tarifa. At 6.43pm we called the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo (SM) and passed on our information. After this it was no longer possible for the contact person to reach the travellers. At 10.16pm we called SM again to ask for news about the case. They could not tell us anything about the specific case, but told us that they had conducted many rescue operations. We then called the head quarter in Madrid, who informed us that the travellers had been rescued and brought to Cadiz. At 10.40pm our contact person confirmed this information.

Last update: 10:48 Oct 29, 2017

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