27/09: 9 travellers returned to Algeria

28.09.2021 / 18:04 / Central Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 27th September 2021

Case name: 2021_09_27-CM580

Situation: Nine travellers in distress in the Central Med, returned to Algeria.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the case: On Monday the 27th of September 2021 in the late evening, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of nine travellers in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea. The travellers had left in the night between Saturday and Sunday from Algeria and were heading towards Sardinia. According to the relative, the boat left in a convoy together with three other boats. The relative had lost contact to the boat at 05.00 CEST the same morning, 15,5 hours before alerting our hotline. Although we were not able to obtain the GPS position of the travellers, the relative estimated that they were close to the coast of Sardinia. We were never able to establish a direct contact to the travellers. At 02.41 CEST we sent an email to the relevant rescue authorities, forwarding all the information we had at the time about the distress case. Despite requesting information from the Italian coasguard about ongoing efforts to locate the boat, we never received an answer. They only told us to contact the Algerian coastguard, as according to them the travellers were more likely to be within the Algerian search and rescue zone.Eventually, we learned from the relative that the travellers were all safe and back in Algeria.

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