Two distress cases in the Western Med, interceptions by Morocco

24.06.2015 / 11:06 / Western Mediterranean Sea, Morocco

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigation - 21st and 23rd of June 2015

Case name: 2015_06_21-WM23, 2015_06_23-WM24
Situation: Vessels in distress in the Western Mediterranean Sea, intercepted by the Moroccan Navy
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea, near Morocco

Summary of the Cases: On Sunday the 21st of June, the Alarm Phone received a call from a relative of a family that had left Cap Spartel/Morocco in the early morning. He reported that the weather was rough and he passed on the mobile phone number of one of the passengers. Contact to the vessel could not be established and so we reached out again to the relative. He confirmed that he had already informed the Spanish search and rescue agency Salvamento Maritimo. In a phone conversation with them we learned that they had contacted the vessel earlier but had since lost contact to them. About an hour later, the relative informed us that the vessel had been intercepted by the Moroccan Navy.

Two days later, on Tuesday the 23rd of June, the Alarm Phone was alerted to a similar situation of distress, again in the Western Mediterranean Sea. Our contact person on Moroccan mainland informed us about a vessel carrying 11 people who had left Tangier/Morocco at 3am on the day. Already 10 minutes later we received the information that the vessel had just been intercepted by the Moroccan Navy.
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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