The coordination of Spain and Morocco when rescuing a dinghy last Wednesday resulted in the death in the Atlantic of three children, four women and 33 adult men who were traveling to the Canary Islands, of which only the body of a girl and two men were recovered. Another new tragedy on the Canary route, one of the most dangerous migratory journeys in the world.
The day before, last Tuesday afternoon, a Maritime Rescue helicopter had intercepted the precarious vessel 74 kilometers from the occupied Saharawi territory and 162 from Gran Canaria. According to Cadena Ser, the pilot of the aircraft contacted the Salvamar coordinating center in Las Palmas to ask whether the waters over which the ship was located were the responsibility of Morocco or Spain. After two attempts, he received the order to return to base without carrying out the rescue.
At that time there was a Maritime Rescue ship one hour away from the boat.
After learning these details, Maritime Rescue has defended this Friday the decision for Morocco to assume the rescue of the dinghy that ended up sinking after ten hours of waiting in the Atlantic. According to the Efe Agency, "because it was in an area of shared responsibility" and closer to the coast of the Sahara, and assures that until the last moment it did not know that its occupants "were in danger".
The rescue carried out by Morocco the day after the call from Spain was carried out aboard the Moroccan patrol boat Al Mansour, which arrived in the area at 6:20 a.m. on Wednesday, when the Spanish Maritime Rescue plane had communicated its position at 7:53 p.m. on Tuesday.
For this reason, the Ombudsman has announced that he is opening an investigation ex officio into that rescue, which has received criticism from the NGOs Caminando Fronteras and Alarm Phone and also from several parties, including IU, Coalición Canaria and Nueva Canarias.
"Given that the alert of the accident occurred in a SAR zone (search and rescue responsibility zone) shared between Spain and Morocco, as stated in the Global SAR Plan of the International Maritime Organization, both countries must coordinate on who proceeds to the rescue and assumes coordination of the emergency," Maritime Rescue warns in a statement.
This state-owned company recalls that the dinghy, with 60 occupants, was 40 miles (74 km) from Blaya (a town on the coast of El Aaiún, in the Sahara) and 88 miles (162 km) from Gran Canaria.
As there was half the distance to the Sahara than to the Canary Islands, it adds, "Morocco expressly assumed coordination and mobilized resources to proceed with the rescue, especially considering that the boat, as confirmed by the Sasemar 101 plane after its sighting, was afloat and there were no people in the water".
Morocco sent a ship to guard the boat overnight
"This information was also confirmed by the Navios Azure ship, diverted to the area and which remained throughout the night in the vicinity of the dinghy, following instructions from the MRCC (maritime rescue coordination center, in English) of Rabat, which had already assumed coordination," he adds.
Regarding the decision to withdraw the Guardamar Calíope from the area, it maintains that it was "40 miles from the dinghy" and recalls that that ship had just rescued 63 people from another zodiac, "several of whom needed attention due to the state they were in, so it proceeded to move to land".
As reported by 112, upon arrival at the port of Arguineguín, none of the 63 rescued by Calíope were transferred to the hospital. The Red Cross is aware, however, of a health transfer.
The coordinates of the Calíope rescue and the first aerial sighting of the dinghy that would end up sinking provided to EFE by Maritime Rescue indicate a shorter distance, of about 25 nautical miles (27º 23.3' N 14º 45.3'W at 8:30 p.m. and 26º 59.4' N and 14º 36' W at 7:53 p.m., respectively).
Maritime Rescue explains that, "once the coordination was assumed by the Moroccan SAR authorities", it was made available to "collaborate in whatever was required; hence a helicopter was mobilized when requested".
"This procedure is, on the other hand, the usual one between neighboring countries and is carried out on numerous occasions both with Morocco and with the United Kingdom or France," says Salvamento, which defends that its decisions in matters of rescue follow "technical" and "independent" criteria, guided by "international procedures", "and no indications are received from external organizations".
He adds that, according to the information provided by Morocco, there were no people in the water at the time of the arrival of its patrol boat (the Al Mansour) to the scene of the accident and stresses that "since the MRCC Rabat assumed coordination, the coordination centers of Maritime Rescue had no information that neither the boat nor the migrants were in danger until the rescue operation was already underway".
Finally, he details that, "from 2020 to the end of May 2023, Maritime Rescue has rescued 6,243 people in the overlapping SAR zone and Morocco 3,748".
