27/09: 7 travellers on their way from Algeria, rescued to Spain.

28.09.2021 / 16:33 / Western Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 27th September 2021

Case name: 2021_09_27-WM731

Situation: Seven travellers in distress in the Western Med rescued and brought to Spain.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean

Summary On Monday the 27th of September 2021 in the evening, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of seven people in distress on their way from Algeria to Spain. The travellers had left the previous morning at around 05.00 CEST from Wahran, Algeria, on a wooden boat. The relative did not know the exact location of the travellers and had not spoken to them since they left Algeria. We were not able to reach the boat directly to get more information about the situation onboard or their GPS position. At 03.10 CEST on the 28th of September, we sent an email to the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo, passing on all the information we had about the boat. At 08.11 CEST we called Salvamento Maritimo to ask if they had any news about a rescue operation of a boat matching this description, but they only told us that as there had been a lot of rescue operations in the area, so they were not able to identify this specific boat. Only past midnight did we receive a confirmation from the relative who spoke to the travellers that they had been rescued and had arrived safely to Spain.

Last update: 21:12 May 01, 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