26/03: 8 travellers departed from Oran and arrived in Almeria, Spain 

27.03.2021 / 19:41 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations –26th March 2021

Case name: 2021_03_26-WM578

Situation: 8 travellers departed from Oran and arrived in Almeira, Spain.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: At 22:00h CET the evening of friday the 26h of March the Alarm Phone was alerted by a relative of a traveller to a boat in distress carrying 8 people. According to the relative, while he did not have a GPS position, the boat was 20km from Almeria. They had departed from Oran, Algeria, the previous night, and the boat was not out of fuel. At 22:07h our shift team called the Spanish coastguard Salvamento Marittimo (SM) and passed on all the information we had. Our shift team tried to contact the travellers
several times but they were always unreachable. At 23:00h we were called again by the relative of one of the travellers, who told us that the travellers’ phone was out of battery, however the last time he managed to speak to the them he was told that they were near Cabo de Gata. Soon after we passed on this information to SM. At 00:25 we called SM, however the officer said they had no news about this case and that they could not act without a GPS position. The following morning, when we called SM in Almeira, the officer told us that 5-6 hours earlier they had rescued a boat , which was drifting 20 km from the coast. We were also told that on the previous day 7 or 8 boats had arrived autonomously. We believed that this probably included our case. We told this to the relative of the travellers, who told us he would try to confirm. In the evening we received confirmation from the relative that the travellers arrived in Spain and were all ok and with the red cross.
Credibility: UP DOWN 0
Layers »
  • 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