27/05: 10 travellers rescued to Spain by Salvamento Maritimo

28.05.2018 / 20:49 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 27th of May 2018

Case name: 2018_05_27-WM236
Situation: 10 travellers rescued to Spain by Salvamento Maritimo
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Sunday the 27th of May, at 6.28am, the Alarm Phone shift team received a call from a group of travellers in distress. When we called them back, they told us that they were 10 people who had left from Tangier two and a half hour earlier. The situation was still okay. On marinetraffic we could see that one of the vessels of the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo (SM) was heading in the direction of the travellers. At 7.14am we spoke to the travellers, and they informed us that the SAR vessel had just passed, but not spotted them. We immediately called SM to pass on this information. At 7.32am we received the position of the travellers via a contact person, and we passed that on to SM as well. On marinetraffic we monitored the trajectory of the SAR vessel, and could see that they were carrying out a rescue operation in the area from which we had received the position. After this we were no longer able to reach the travellers. When we called SM again at 7.53am, they confirmed that they had rescued the 10 travellers.

Last update: 20:48 Jun 09, 2018

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