14/09: Alarm Phone alerted to two boats in the Strait of Gibraltar, both brought back to Morocco

15.09.2018 / 09:26 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 14th of September 2018
Case name: 2018_09_14-WM330
Situation: Two boats on their way to Spain brought back to Morocco by the Moroccan navy.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Friday the 14th of September, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted to two boats on their way from Morocco to Spain. Both boats were brought back to Morocco by the Moroccan navy.

At 5.23am CEST our shift team was alerted to a boat with nine people, including two women, who had left from a beach close to Tangier at 3.30am. The contact person forwarded us the phone number and position of the boat, and told us that they were in urgent distress, as water was entering the boat. We were not able to reach the travellers, but at 6am we called the Moroccan rescue authorities and passed on the information we had. At 7.34am we also called SM and alerted them to the boat. Via the contact person we were able to receive updated positions from the boat, which we could pass on to the rescue authorities. At 8.40am we received a confirmation from both the travellers and contact person that the boat had been rescued by the Moroccan navy, and the travellers were being brought back to Morocco.

At 12.43pm CEST our shift team received a direct call from a boat with eight travellers, including one woman and one child. After initial technical problems, they managed to send us their position. At 3.56pm we called SM and passed on the information we had. At 4.16pm the travellers told us that they could see a rescue vessel of SM, but that it was not approaching. We therefore immediately called SM, urging them to rescue the travellers. They confirmed that their rescue vessel was right by the travellers, but refused to carry out the rescue operation, as the travellers were still in Moroccan waters, and insisted that they would have to wait for the Moroccan navy to arrive. After this point it was no longer possible to reach the travellers. At 4.43pm SM told us that they thought the travellers had been picked up by the Moroccan navy, but only the following day did we manage to reach the travellers, who could confirm that they had been intercepted and brought back to Morocco.

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