30/06 Two boats in distress in the Western Med, 1 returned to Morocco, 1 rescued to Spain

01.07.2018 / 18:04 / Western Mediterranean, Morocco/Spain

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 30th of June 2018

Case name: 2018_06_30-WM274
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to emergency situations in the Western Med
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Saturday the 30th of June 2018, our Alarm Phone shift team was alerted to two boats in distress, both coming from Tangier/Morocco.

Case 1: At around 5am CEST, we received a call from a contact person who informed us about a boat carrying 13 people, including two women and one child. We spoke to the travellers directly at 5.16am and received further information but then lost contact to the boat. At 8.26am we spoke to the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo (SM). At 10.35am the travellers sent us GPS positions but they seemed to be inaccurate. At 12.04am they informed us that they had been intercepted by the Moroccan Navy.

Case 2: At 6.57am CEST, we received a call by a contact person in Morocco who informed us that a boat carrying 11 people, including 2 minors, had left from Tangier several hours earlier. We spoke to the travellers at 7.15am and they were moving north. We then lost contact but learned at 8.15am already that they had been rescued to Spain.

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