14/09: One boat carrying 20 people in distress in the Atlantic, rescued to the Canaries/Spain

15.09.2019 / 15:05 / Western Mediterranean, Morocco/Spain

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 14th of September 2019

Case name: 2019_09_14-WM416
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 Saturday the 14th of September 2019, the Alarm Phone was alerted at 19.10h CEST to a boat in distress. It had left from the west coast of Morocco and was trying to reach the Canary Islands in Spain. There were 20 people on board, including 6 women and an infant. Over the next hours, we tried to reach the travellers directly but could not get through. At 22.30h, we informed the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo (SM). SM reached out to us twice, at 22.40 and 22.45 to ask for more details about the case. At midnight we spoke to SM Las Palmas and they confirmed that they would go out to sea the next morning.

At 14.45h the next day, SM Las Palmas informed us that they had spotted a wooden boat and would initiate a rescue operation. At 16.35h, SM Las Palmas stated that they would need another few hours to reach the boat.

At 20.34h, SM confirmed to us that the rescue took place around 18h. There were 19 people on board, as well as an infant.

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