15/06: 50 travellers missing on their way from Agadir to Lanzarote

16.06.2023 / 21:53 / Atlantic

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 15th June 2023

Case name: 2023_06_15-ATL037

Situation: Around 50 travellers in distress in the Atlantic Ocean, fate unknown.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Atlantic Ocean

Summary of the case: On Thursday the 15th of June 2023, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by relatives to a group of around 50 travellers, including five women, in distress in the Atlantic Ocean. The travellers had left from Agadir towards Lanzarote on the 11th of June on a wooden boat, and the relatives had had no news since. We were not able to establish contact to the boat, but immediately alerted the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo, relaying all the information we had. The following morning, the Guardia Civil confirmed to us that they were commencing a search operation with an aircraft and a boat. In the evening, Salvamento Maritimo confirmed that the operation was still ongoing, but that there was no news so far. The Moroccan rescue authorities had no news about the boat either. The following day we stayed in contact with relatives who got increasingly desperate for news, and with Spanish and Moroccan rescue authorities who could not confirm the rescue of the boat. We contacted the Spanish Red Cross, asking them to identify some of the travellers based on information we received from their relatives. As we feared the boat had missed the Canary Islands, we alerted the Portuguese coastguard as well, but they had no news either. After more than two weeks, we were forced to close the case without knowing the fate of the travellers. We hope they somehow made it to shore, but fear that they have become part of the devastating number of people losing their life in the Atlantic whilst exercising their right to freedom of movement. All our thoughts and solidarity are with their friends and families.

Tweets about this case: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1669976623523807233?t=-g60jSr7Ow--bwthIh02Bw&s=09

Last update: 11:45 Jan 21, 2024

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