14/07: 23 people departed from Boujdour, missing at sea

15.07.2021 / 15:37 / Western Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – July 14th 2021

Case name: 2021_07_14-WM648

Situation: ~ Five women, one child and 17 men departed from Boujdour, missing at sea

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean

Summary of Case In the late evening of July 14th we were alerted to a group of 23 travellers, including one child, who had departed Boujdour for the Canary islands. At the time of the call the relative had not had contact with the boat for three days. We alerted authorities at 00.10 CEST July 15th. We tried to reach the boat throughout the night and following day but without success. At 13.15 CEST the Spanish Search and Rescue organisation Salvamento Marítimo confirmed they had launched a SAR mission concerning this case. The following day, July 16th SM Las Palmas continued the search. They informed us about a green wooden boat they found carring around 20 people but no women or children at 16.36 CEST, which we believe was not the boat the relative alerted us to. At midday July 17th SM Las Palmas confirmed they were continuing to search for the boat but had found nothing by the end of the day. The fate of the 23 travellers remains unclear.

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July 17th

22.15 CEST

Last update: 15:59 Feb 03, 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