18/09: Two travellers stuck on the Spanish Isla del Congresso, fate unknown

19.09.2021 / 13:42 / Western Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 18th September 2021

Case name: 2021_09_18-WM715

Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to two travellers stuck at the Spanish island Isla del Congresso; their fate remains unclear.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean

Summary: On Saturday the 18th of September 2021, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of two travellers who were stuck on the Spanish Isla del Congresso in the Western Mediterranean Sea. The relative informed us that the last time they had called the travellers, someone had picked up the phone in Spanish. We were not able to reach the travellers, but alerted the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo to the situation, asking them if they knew what had happened to the travellers. In response to our email, Salvamento Maritimo answered that the travellers had been assisted by the Moroccan Navy. In the meantime, the Spanish Guardia Civil told us that they had informed their colleagues on the island but that they had no news from them. However, later both Salvamento Maritimo and the Moroccan rescue authorities told us that they did not have information about what had happened to the travellers. The Moroccan rescue authorities told us that they could not intervene without instructions from Spain, as the island is Spanish territory in use as a military base. We were not able to find out what happened to the two travellers. We hope they were brought to Spain, as a return to Morocco would constitute an illegal pushback.

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