13/01: Boat carrying 54 people in distress, 53 go missing, one survivor

14.01.2019 / 16:15 / Western Mediterranean, Morocco/Spain

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 13th of January 2019

Case name: 2019_01_13-WM366
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to emergency situations in the Western Med
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Sunday the 13th of January 2019, the Alarm Phone was alerted at 10.38am CET to a boat by a contact person that carried 54 people, including 4 women. They had left from Tazaghine the day before. We received several phone numbers from people on the boat, but they could all not be reached. Over several days, we were in contact with authorities in Spain and Morocco repeatedly, trying to pressurise them to extend their search for this boat. However, recently, the Spanish government reduced the size of the fleet of boats Salvamento has at hand at the Spanish southern border, thereby reducing also their rescue capacity.

On the 17th of January, we learned via Helena Maleno that one person from this boat was found alive, rescued by a fisherman and returned to Morocco. The other 53 people have gone missing and are feared to have drowned. The lives of the relatives, friends, and loved ones of these 53 people will change forever. Knowing that all words fail to do justice to their pain, we want to express our deepest condolences and wish them all the strength in the days and months ahead.

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