24/03: 26 travelers started from Boujdour, rescue to Canary Islands

25.03.2021 / 12:10 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 24th of March 2021

Case name: 2021_03_24-WM572

Situation: 26 travelers (among them 4 children an 2 women) left from Boujdour, rescued to Canary Islands by SM Las Palmas.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the case: On the 24th of March 2021 at 22:00h CET, the Alarm Phone was called by someone looking for his brother. He had left from Boujdour, Western Sahara/Morocco with approximately 20 travelers (among them 4 minors) towards the Canary Islands. According to the caller, they had left on 22nd March at 2:00h CET in the morning, local time. We received two phone numbers from the boat.At
22:34h CET, our shift team informed the Spanish Search and Rescue organization Salvamento Marítimo (SM) Las Palmas via e-mail and phone call. At 23:21h CET, we talked to SM Las Palmas again who confirmed they would lauch a search mission with airplanes as soon as the day would break. At 01:57h CET, a second friend of somebody on the boat contacted the Alarm Phone. We received the additional information that there were two women on the boat and that it was a black boat with two engines. We informed the caller that authorities were already informed and would launch an operation.The
next morning (25th March), the travelers were not reachable. At 07:50h CET, we talked to the brother who had alerted us in the first place and received a correction of the time of departure. The travelers had started in the
morning of 23rd, instead of 22nd. At 07:58h CET, we send this correction to SM Las Palmas via e-mail. At 08:30h CET, the worried brother called our hotline again, asking for news. He send us a name and a picture of his brother on the boat. The travelers were still not reachable for the next hours. At 13:40h CET, we called SM Las Palmas, but they did not have news. Their aircrafts were still searching. At 21:26h CET, we received an e-mail from SM Las Palmas, reporting about the rescue of 26 travelers (among them 4 children an 2 women) from a green wooden boat. They were asking if it could be the boat we had alerted them to. At 22:20h CET, we sent the name and a picture of one of the persons from the boat to SM, so they could check if this person was on the rescued
boat. The next morning (26th March) at 12:18h CET, SM Las Palmas confirmed via e-mail that the person of whom we had sent the name and picture was on the rescued boat. Our shift team informed the friend and the relative about the
rescue and closed the case.

Twitter chronology:

25.03:

09:48h CET: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1375006555700133888
19:51h CET: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1375158291106574340

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