24/08: Boat carrying 5 people intercepted by the Moroccan navy and deported to Tiznit

25.08.2018 / 18:59 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 24th of August 2018
Case name: 2018_08_24-WM318
Situation: Boat carrying 5 people intercepted by the Moroccan navy and deported to Tiznit
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Friday the 24th of August at 7.44am CEST we were alerted to a boat of 5 people and at 7:58am we received their position. At 8:08am the boat called us to tell us that water was entering their boat and asked us to call the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo (SM). At 8:56am SM told us that they were not responsible for the boat as it was in Moroccan SAR zone, however we told them that it was in fact in common SAR zone. We called SM Madrid at 9:39am to inform them of the case, but they were already aware of the details from our previous emails. We were told that they had informed the Moroccan rescue authorities because the boat was in their zone. At 12:01pm the Moroccan rescue authorities confirmed to us that they were working on this case. At 3:49pm we spoke with the Moroccan rescue authorities who told us that the Moroccan Navy had intercepted a boat carrying 5 people in the area we had indicated at 10:38am. Over the next few hours we made numerous attempts to contact the people from the boat, and eventually on Tuesday the 28th of August we made contact and were told that the boat had been intercepted by the Moroccan navy and deported to Tiznit (Southern Morocco).
Credibility: UP DOWN 0
Layers »
  • 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

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