27/01: 39 people, including one woman, left from Nador, rescued to Almería

28.01.2021 / 09:22 / Western Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 2021

Case name: 202010127-WM654

Situation: 39 people, including one woman, left from Nador, rescued to Almería

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean

Summary of Case
Shortly after 17.00 CET January 27th Alarm Phone was alerted to a boat in distress carrying 37 people (we later learnt the boat carried 39 people, including one woman) who had departed from Nador early the same day. The relative who alerted us to the case informed us that the people on the boat had called them for help 15min previously. Neither the relative who alerted us nor we were able to establish direct contact with the boat. We alerted authorities at 18.01 CET, forwarding the information provided to us by the relative. Salvamento Maritimo confirmed they would try to get in touch with the boat also. By midnight we had still not been able to establish direct contact with the boat.

In the morning of January 28th authorities in Madrid informed us that a boat carrying 39 people, including 1 woman, was rescued to Almería during the night. We forwarded this information to the relative who had alerted us to the case. The relative remained unsure whether the information provided by MRCC Madrid matched the information they had about the departure of their family members. In the evening of January 28th we were able to confirm the information matched the rescue.

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