Maritime Rescue has denied this Thursday the statements of the mayor of Arrecife, Yonathan de León (Popular Party), who had stated that the Spanish resources acted "in waters under Moroccan responsibility" during the rescue of two inflatable boats with 112 people on board.
In response to La Voz de Lanzarote, Maritime Rescue has explained that, "as can be seen in map 1, the rescues carried out by the Guardamar Polimnia this morning were carried out 14 miles east and 20 miles southeast of Lanzarote, respectively."
According to the entity, "these positions, reflected in map 2 (red triangles), are located within the Spanish SAR zone, specifically the one assigned to the Las Palmas Rescue Coordination Center (CCS)."
Maritime Rescue has also clarified the scope of this area of responsibility: "To understand the extension of the Las Palmas SCC area, we include map 3 of the SAR areas established by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), where an area of overlap with Morocco is observed, but the rescues this morning occurred in an exclusively Spanish SAR area," they emphasize.
Hours earlier, the mayor of Arrecife had stated that "the Spanish Government moved its rescue resources yesterday to waters under Moroccan responsibility," and maintained that the rescue of the two inflatable boats occurred "when the boats were sailing under the responsibility of Morocco."
De León insisted that the IMO international agreement requires coordination of rescues within each search and rescue zone and asked the Spanish Government that "if it wishes to continue intervening in Moroccan waters, it should also transfer those rescued to Moroccan ports."
The councilor also stated that "there is social alarm in Lanzarote due to the permanent disembarkation of migrants in the ports of the Canary Islands" and considered that "if international law were applied, these people should be taken to ports in Morocco."
The Arrecife City Council also pointed out that the rescue was carried out by the Salvamar Polimnia, although Maritime Rescue has specified that the operation was carried out by the Guardamar Polimnia.
Likewise, the council assured that the geolocation of the rescue boat demonstrated its presence in Moroccan territory, something that the state agency has categorically denied, showing the official maps of the SAR zones.
What are SAR zones
SAR (Search and Rescue) zones are internationally defined maritime areas in which each country assumes responsibility for coordinating search and rescue operations. These demarcations were established by the IMO in the International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue of 1979. Maritime Rescue reminds that, although there is an overlap between the zones of Spain and Morocco, the rescues carried out this morning "did not take place in that area of coincidence," but in Spanish maritime territory according to the verified coordinates.
