25/12: 15 people in the Alboran rescued by Salvamento Maritimo and brought to Almeria

26.12.2020 / 14:42 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 25th of December 2020
Case name: 2020_12_25-WM547
Situation: Boat in distress on the way from Oran, rescued and brought to Almeria
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Friday the 25th of December in the evening, our shift team was informed by a relative about a boat carrying 15 people, 14 men and a pregnant woman. The travellers had left from Oran on the 23rd of December at 06.00 CET on a plastic boat. Neither we nor the relative were able to establish contact to the boat. At 21.09 CET we called the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo and passed on the information we had. They told us that the Spanish military police unit Guardia Civil was doing search and rescue in the area. During the night we tried reaching the travellers without success. At 12.28 CET on the 26th we finally reached the travellers. They told us that they had been rescued by Salvamento Maritimo and were brought to Almeria. During the trip their engine had broken and they had been out of food, but they were now all safe and sound in Spain.

Last update: 18:40 Apr 26, 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