Incident Report – Immigrants in Southern Mediterranean Waters
On the 2nd October, Moroccan Authorities recovered the bodies of 11 migrants off the North Eastern city of Nador after their vessel “encountered issues”, officials said.
“Another 32 sub-Saharan migrants were rescued during the operation.
A Spanish charity specialising in assisting migrants put the death toll at 34 and said the migrants had waited over 36 hours to be rescued from a sinking boat.
Some 54,000 migrants have attempted to cross the Mediterranean from Morocco since the beginning of 2018.
Due to the issue of immigrants trying to get to Spain from North Africa, Superyachts heading towards the Gibraltar Straits could well encounter some migrant boats.
Spanish coast guard will put out notifications on VHF about boats that they know of near their coastline, their approximate vicinity and number of people on board.
The current advice when you come across a migrant boat around the Mediterranean’s North African coastline is as follows:
- Get in contact with the closest MRCC centre in Spain or Italy.
- Get close to the vessel so you can report status etc, but do not attempt to take anybody onboard.”
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