13/03: Boat with 67 travellers capsize in the Alboran sea, 45 people believed to have drowned

14.03.2019 / 10:23 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 13th of March 2019
Case name: 2019_13_03-WM378
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to a group of 67 travellers who left from Nador. After many hours at sea, only 22 travellers were rescued from the boat.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Wednesday the 13th of March at 9.22pm CET, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a contact person to a group of 67 people, including 12 women, who had left from around Nador the previous night at 2am. The last contact to the boat had been at 3pm, where the travellers had informed the contact person that there was a hole in their inflatable boat. We tried calling the numbers of the travellers many times but were not able to reach them. At 10.19pm we called the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo (SM), who asked us to forward them the information via email. At 11.07pm we spoke to the Moroccan rescue authorities, who confirmed that they were looking for the boat, in a coordinated operation together with SM with both vessels and an aircraft. The following morning, however, they had no news concerning the boat. Throughout the day we continuously tried reaching the travellers, which was never possible, and we stayed in contact with both the Spanish and Moroccan rescue authorities, who informed us that a Frontex aircraft as well as the Algerian coast guard were involved in the operation. At 3.55pm The Moroccan authorities told us that they had rescued a boat in the morning carrying 22 people, including seven women. Via the contact person who had spoken to the travellers after they arrived back to Morocco, we found out that the 22 people rescued were the survivors from the boat we had been alerted to. Only one dead body was found so far, which means that another 44 people remain missing.
We were devastated to learn about this tragedy; about 45 people unnecessarily losing their lives because European politics continue to disregard human lives in their continuous strive towards strengthening Europe’s external borders.

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