31/08: 15 people started from Algeria and rescued to Spain

01.09.2021 / 08:54 / Western Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 31st August 2021

Case name: 2021_08_31-WM687

Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 15 people who departed on 30th of August from Tipasa, Algeria, rescued by Salvamento Maritimo to Spain

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean

Summary On Tuesday the 31st of August 2021 in the early evening the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of 15 travellers, 14 men, one child, who left Tipasa, Algeria, 36 hours ago in direction of Ibiza or Cartagena on Spanish mainland. Accordingly, the boat was a plastic one of 5 meters. The shift team couldn’t reach the provided telephone number but alerted the coast guard of Cartagena.

The next day, 1st of September 2021, the shift team called MRCC Algiers who reported that Salvamento Maritimo had rescued a boat with 15 people the day before. When Alarm Phone called the coast guard in Madrid they refused to give clear information. Later that day the relative confirmed that the group arrived in Spain.

Last update: 12:44 Mar 29, 2022

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