29/07: 47 travelers missing on the way to the Canary Islands, rescued by merchant vessel, 14 died.

30.07.2021 / 17:51 / Atlantic

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 29th July 2021

Case name: 2021_07_29-WM653

Situation: Families lost contact to 47 travelers (7 women, 40 men) between Dakhla and the Canary Islands. After several days of investigation, we learned that the people had been rescued by the merchant vessel “Ever Grace” to Las Palmas. 14 travelers were dead.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Atlantic

Summary of the case
On the 29th of July 2021 at 13h30 CEST, the Alarm Phone was alerted to a missing boat by a relative of one of the travelers. Reportedly, there were 47 people on a green wooden pirogue, among them seven women and 40 men. They had left from Dakhla, Western Sahara, in the morning of the 28th July towards the Canary Islands. Our shift team tried to reach the travelers, but without success, and informed the Spanish Search and Rescue organization Salvamento Marítimo (SM) on Las Palmas at 14h30 CEST via phone call and e-mail.
Fur the next five days, our shift teams stayed in contact with the families of the missing and regularly tried to reach the boat, but without success. We searched for information, checked if there were matching rescues, and called the coast guards for news of the missing boat, but neither Spanish nor Moroccan authorities could find them. The families of the missing neither had news from them. We had to close this case remaining unclear about the fate of the 47 travelers, and fearing the worst.

After several days of investigation, we learned that the people had been rescued by the merchant vessel “Ever Grace” to Las Palmas. 14 travelers were dead.

Twitter chronology:

30.07.2021, 18h39 CEST: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1421148432274796548
31.07.2021, 17h21 CEST: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1421491302835834888
02.08.2021, 18h21 CEST: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1422231003993681923
04.08.2021, 12h56 CEST: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1422873965152849923

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