17/10: 18 people rescued to Cartagena

18.10.2020 / 18:34 / Western Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 17th of October 2020
Case name: 2019_10_17-WM507
Situation: 12 people pulled back to Morocco by the Marine Royale; 18 people leave Algeria, rescued to Cartagena
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean

Summary of the Case
At just past 20:00 CEST in the evening of 17 October, we were contacted by some concerned relatives of somebody who had left Algeria heading for Spain. They had left the night before. We were told that there had been two boats, each carrying nine people, but friends and family of the travelers had not heard anything further.

We were given two names and two phone numbers, but we could not reach the travelers. We cailled the Spanish search and rescue organisation, Salvamento Maritimo, in Almeria to inform them about the case and see if they had any information. They knew nothing about these boats. When we passed on the bad news to the relatives, they told us that they might have been heading for Cartagena. We find the Salvamento Maritimo in Cartagena. They told us that they had rescued two boats which matched the description we had been given. They did not have the names of the passengers.

The following afternoon, we were phoned by our contact who told us that they had spoken to their relative and the travelers had arrived safely in Cartagena. Boza, welcome to Europe.

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