17/09: Around 20 travellers in distress in the Western Med, fate unclear

18.09.2021 / 13:39 / Western Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 17th September 2021

Case name: 2021_09_17WM714

Situation: 15-20 travellers in distress on their way from Algeria to Spain, their fate remains unclear.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean

Summary: On Friday the 17th of September 2021 shortly before midnight, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of around 15-20 travellers, including two young women and a little boy, in distress in the Western Mediterranean Sea. The travellers had left from Oran, heading towards Almeria on a white fiber glass boat. According to the relative, the travellers’ engine had broken down. The relative had lost contact to the boat at 19.00 CEST and our shift team was also not able to establish direct contact to the travellers despite continuously trying throughout the night and the following day. At 01.07 CEST we sent an email to the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo, alerting them to the distress if the travellers. They confirmed that they were searching for the boat in the area. We were never able to get a confirmation neither from Salvamento Maritimo nor from the relative about what happened to the boat. As the information we had about the boat was not specific enough, we were also not able to match the boat with articles published in Spanish media about arrivals. We very much hope that the travellers arrived safely to Spain.

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