19.10: 25 people on their way to the Canary Islands rescued and brought to Fuertaventura

20.10.2020 / 14:42 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 19th of October 2020
Case name: 20201019-WM509
Situation: 25 travellers in distress in the Atlantic rescued by SM and brought to Fuertaventura.
Place of incident: Western Mediterranean

Summary of the case:
On Monday the 19th of October at 17.07 CET, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a boat carrying 25 travellers in the Atlantic Sea. The travellers had left from Laayoune at 04.00 CET the same day. However, for many hours neither we nor the relative were able to reach the travellers. At 22.15, after receiving the information from the relative that the travellers were south of Fuertaventura, we called the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo (SM) in Las Palmas and passed on the information we had. Half an hour later, we called SM again. They told us that they had sent an asset to search for the travellers south of Fuertaventura. On vesselfinder we could follow the search trajectory of the SM rescue vessel as well as that of an SM helicopter. At 03.53 CET the relative informed us that the travellers had been rescued. This was confirmed by SM in a call at 06.38 CET, where they informed us that the travellers had been brought to Fuertaventura.

Last update: 15:01 Feb 07, 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