26/06: 51 people dead in shipwreck in the Atlantic, four survivors back in Morocco

27.06.2023 / 12:40 / Atlantic

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 26th of June 2023

Case name: 2023_06_26-ATL047

Situation: 55 travellers shipwrecked in the Atlantic Ocean, only four of them surviving.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Atlantic Ocean

Summary of the case: On Monday the 26th of June 2023, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of 55 travellers, including 11 women and three children, in distress in the Atlantic Ocean. The travellers had left from Guelmin on the 22nd of June on a rubber boat, heading towards Lanzarote. According to the relative, they had been missing since. We were not able to reach the travellers but immediately relayed all the information we had to the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo. In a call to the Guardia Civil they informed us that the travellers had not yet been rescued but that they were searching for them with aircrafts. For several days we remained unable to reach the travellers and did not get a confirmation of their rescue.

Eventually, we learned from activists on the ground that the boat had shipwrecked. Only four survivors had been brought back to Morocco where two of them were now in hospital. We are sad and angry to witness yet another tragedy in the Atlantic. All our thoughts and solidarity are with the friends and families of those who lost their lives due to the racist European border regime.

Tweets about this case: https://twitter.com/txemita/status/1675433435131789312?s=09

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