21/08: Around 60 travellers missing in the Atlantic

22.08.2022 / 16:04 / Atlantic

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 21st August 2022

Case name: 2022_08_21-ATL090

Situation: Around 60 travellers in distress in the Atlantic, fate unknown

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Atlantic Sea

Summary of the case: On Friday the 19th of August 2022, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of around 60 travellers, including nine women and four children, in distress in the Atlantic Ocean. The travellers had left from Tan Tan on the 10th of August and since then their families had no news from them. We were not able to reach the travellers, but relayed all the information we had to the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo. They told us on the phone that as far as they were aware, they had not rescued a boat matching the description we had given. We were also not able to match the information with any interceptions made by the Moroccan navy. After many days of research, we were not able to find out what happened to the boat which remains missing. We fear that the travellers from this boat have to be added to the devastating number of people losing their lives in the Atlantic Ocean attempting to cross to the Canary Islands.

Tweets about the case:
https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1561257112851865601

Last update: 12:25 Aug 07, 2023

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