08/11: 10 travellers missing in the Western Med

09.11.2021 / 08:25 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 8th November 2021

Case name: 2021_11_08-WM776

Situation: 10 travellers missing after embarking on a boat from Oran towards Spain.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean

Summary: On Monday the 8th of November 2021, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of 10 travellers in distress in the Western Mediterranean Sea. The travellers had left from Oran, Algeria, on the 5th of October, heading towards Spain. The relative told us that they had lost contact to the boat. We were also not able to reach the travellers directly, but forwarded all the information we had to the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo. They told us that they had not rescued a boat matching the information we provided them. Over the following many days, we stayed in contact with the relative who was getting increasingly worried as time passed. Neither Salvamento Maritimo nor the Guardia Civil had any news about the arrival of the travellers, and we were also not able to match the case with anything reported in Spanish media. The Algerian coastguard also told us that they had no information about the boat. We were never able to establish what happened to the travellers who remain missing. We hope they made it to shore by themselves, but have to fear the worst.

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