08/12: 33 travellers in distress in the Atlantic, fate unknown

09.12.2021 / 21:07 / Atlantic

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 8th December 2021

Case name: 2021_12_08-WM802

Situation: 33 travellers in distress on their way to the Canary Islands, their fate remains unclear.

Status of WTM Investigation: fate unknown

Place of Incident: Altantic Sea

Summary On Wednesday the 8th of December 2021, the Alarm Phone shift team received a direct call from a boat in distress in the Atlantic Sea. Onboard were 33 travellers, including seven women, one of them pregnant, and three children. They were travelling onboard a blue and brown rubber boat and told us that they were in urgent distress due to bad weather conditions. None of the travellers were wearing life jackets. We managed to get their GPS position, showing that they were in the Spanish search and rescue zone, and immediately alerted the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo. We stayed in contact with the travellers during the day, but lost contact to the boat in the evening. Over the next many days we tried to find out what had happened to the travellers. As there had been many boats rescued in the Atlantic Sea as well as some interceptions those days, it was not possible to establish with certainty whether this boat was among those rescued. We hope that the travellers made it 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