30/09: 3 people left near Nador, reached Motril, Spain, autonomously

01.10.2020 / 16:46 / Western Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 3rd of November 2020

Case name: 20200930-WM491

Situation: 3 travellers started from Bouyafar near Nador, reached Spain

Status of WTM Investigation: concluded

Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean

Summary of the Case:

On 30th September 2020 at 22h CET the Alarm Phone was called by a worried relative. The person stated that a boat with 3 travellers need help. The travellers were Arabic speaking and the boat was green. The next hour the Alarm Phone tried to call the travellers – without success. At 22:32h new information about the travellers came in: they are Morrocan berbers and the boat now was a blue wooden boat. At 1st October 2020 around 00:30h CET the Alarm Phone sent an email to Salvamento Maritimo (SM) to ask if they were found. Afterwards it called SM Almeria. The officer stated to be informed by Madrid about the case and were working on it. Unfortunately the shift team couldn’t find a rescue vessel on online live maps. At 01:18h the relative announced himself with news: The travellers seemed to be 17miles from Motril. The Alarm Phone forwarded this to the competent authorities and tried to contact the travellers by itself – without success. In the early morning at 04:40h the AP got the relieving message that the travellers reached Motril in Spain.

Last update: 09:17 Jan 19, 2021

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