The waters where a boat sank on Wednesday with 61 immigrants on board and which ended with the death of 37, including two children and a baby, were shared and the rescue services could have intervened both ‘Spain like the Moroccans. Despite this, Spain decided to delegate it to Morocco, which arrived late and when it wanted to act there was no more room to avoid the tragedy.
Yesterday, Salvament Marítim disclaimed any responsibility and assured that the rescue was left to Morocco because the tire was 40 miles from the African coast and 88 from Gran Canaria. In addition, it is added that, when the decision was made, the boat “was on the surface and there were no people in the water”. It is also justified that the Guardarmar, which was an hour away, was not sent, because it had just carried out a rescue and some of the immigrants needed medical attention. That’s why he came back to earth.
“Salvament Marítim has acted fully in accordance with the rules and international coordination procedures established in the field of maritime search and rescue”, assures the organization, which points to the fact that, since the pneumatic was in a SAR area (responsibility of search and rescue) shared between Spain and Morocco, the countries must coordinate on the rescue and the assumption of emergency coordination.
The body, dependent on the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, explained yesterday the intervention in the event, after its role was called into question. In the conversations held on the day that the tire was located – Tuesday -, the control center of Salvament Marítim de Las Palmas and the pilot of the Sasemar 101 plane, which was sent to the area, it is evident that Spain delegated knowing that the waters were Spanish.
In the recordings, advanced by the Ser chain, the control center indicates to the pilot that the tire is 4 or 5 miles “from an overlapping area” and asks him to check the state “at the limit” of the waters without reaching enter the Moroccan SAR zone. Faced with this, the pilot corrects the interlocutor and points out that the position of the boat “is within our SAR zone”.
In any case, the Ombudsman has initiated ex officio action to clarify what happened. In addition, Coalició Canària will ask the Government to appear before the permanent delegation of Congress to explain what has happened. He will ask for explanations from the Ministers of Development, Defence, Interior and Foreign Affairs “so that the truth is known and responsibilities are assumed”.
