24/6: One boat from Tanger rescued to Spain

25.06.2016 / 00:13 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 24th of June 2016

Case name: 2016_06_24-WM102
Situation: One boat from Tanger rescued to Spain
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea
Summary of the Cases: On Friday, the 24th of June 2016, at 8.05am,a contact person alerted the Alarm Phone to a boat, carrying 8 persons (7 men 1 woman) in distress in the Western Mediterranean Sea. At 8.15 we talked to the travellers directly and they confirmed what the contact person had also told us, that they had started near Tanger. We immediately called the Spanish search and rescue agency Salvamento Maritimo (S.M.), who was already informed about the case and informed us that they had already started to search the boat in distress. We then attempted to reach out to the travellers again to tell them that help was underway, but the connection was too bad to communicate. We also got in touch with a person in Morocco, who called us about the same case. At 9.30am the contact in Marocco told us that the travellers saw two big boats near them. At 10am, we also reached the travellers and they said that they could see a white boat and the Spanish shore. They also recounted that they had talked to the Red Cross. At 10.30am, our contact person in Morocco confirmed the rescue of the boat 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