26/01: 53 travellers rescued to Fuerteventura by Salvamento Maritimo

27.01.2022 / 07:09 / Atlantic

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 26th January 2022

Case name: 2022_01_26-ATL018

Situation: 53 travellers in distress in the Atlantic Sea, rescued by Salvamento Maritimo and brought to Fuerteventura.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Atlantic Sea

Summary: On Wednesday the 26th of January 2022, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of 53 travellers, including nine women and four children, in distress in the Atlantic Sea. The travellers had left the previous morning at 04.00 local time from a beach close to Tan Tan. They were travelling on a black rubber boat. We reached the travellers who told us that the weather was getting worse and their boat had started taking in water. We also managed to get their GPS position and forwarded all the information we had to the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo. Salvamento Maritimo told us that they were busy with many rescue operations in the area. We stayed in contact with the travellers throughout the night and morning, and updated Salvamento Maritimo with their position as often as possible. At around 10.40 CET the travellers told us that their situation was deteriorating, they were adrift, some travellers were sick and their satellite phone had been damaged by falling in the water. At 13.15 CET we saw online that a rescue asset belonging to Salvamento Maritimo had left the port and was heading towards the position of the boat. Not long after, the relative confirmed to us that the travellers had been rescued and would be brought to Fuerteventura.

Tweets about the case: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1486385830704955395

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