10/12: Alarm Phone alerted to three boats, one rescued to Spain, one returned to Morocco and one to Algeria.

11.12.2018 / 01:14 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 10th of December 2018
Case name: 2018_12_10-WM355
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to three groups of travellers; on arriving in Spain, one returning to Morocco, and one returning to Algeria.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Monday the 10th of December, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted to three boats in the Western Med. Two had left from around Nador, and one from Algeria. One boat was rescued by the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo, one group of travellers returned back to Nador on their own, and the boat from Algeria returned to Algeria.

At 10.27am, our shift team was alerted to a boat with 34 people, including 7 women and a child, which had left from Nador at 10pm the previous night. The last contact to the boat had been at 11.25pm, and neither we nor the contact person were able to reach the travellers. At midday we forwarded all the information we had to SM, who told us that they had already commenced a search and rescue operation. In the afternoon we called SM again to get news about the operation, but they were unwilling to provide this. Only in the evening at 8.44pm did we receive the news from the contact person that the travellers had been rescued by SM and were being brought to Spain.

At 2.40pm a contact person informed us about a boat with 38 people, including 10 women, who had left from a beach close to Nador. The contact person forwarded us the number of the travellers, and a position showing that they were close to the Spanish colony Melilla. At 2.53pm we reached the travellers, who urged us to call for rescue. They told us that they had themselves informed the Moroccan authorities about their distress at 10am, but that no one had come to help them. At 3.18pm the travellers sent us an updated position, showing that they were drifting towards the coast. At 3.39pm we called the Moroccan rescue authorities, who were already aware of the case, and forwarded the position of the travellers. At 5.15pm we called back the Moroccan authorities, and they informed us that they had spoken to the travellers who had managed to arrive back in Morocco on their own. We were not able to reach the travellers afterwards, but at 8.54pm the contact person confirmed this information.

At 4pm, we were called by a contact person in Algeria, alerting us to a boat with 11 men, amongst them a disabled person and several minors, which had left from Algeria. At midday the contact person had received the news that they were close to the Spanish coast, but they had lost contact at 1pm. At 4.05pm we called SM and passed on the information we had, and in another call an hour and a half later, SM told us that they had not been able to find the boat so far.
At 5.29pm we spoke to the contact person again, who told us that the travellers called half an hour earlier, saying that they were close to the beach Las Negras. We immediately passed on this information to SM. Two hours later, the contact person told us that the travellers were in front of the port of Almeria, but unable to approach, as their engine was no longer working. We tried to get a position from the travellers, but this was not possible. In a call to SM at 9.35pm, they insisted that without a valid position, they could not search for the boat before the following morning.
The next morning at 6am we called the number on the boat again, and the person told us that they were all safe and on land. The contact person afterwards explained that they had arrived back to Algeria.
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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