26/08: One traveller dead, 12 rescued to Cabrera Island

Verified

  In Distress   Dead   Boza

27.08.2023 / 22:39 / Western Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 26th August 2023

Case name: 2023_08_26-WM054

Situation: 13 travellers in distress in the Western Med, one lost his life whilst the others were rescued after six days at sea and brought to Cabrera Island.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the case: On Saturday the 26th of August 2023, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of 13 travellers, all young men, in distress in the Western Mediterranean Sea. The travellers had left from Algeria the previous day in the early hours of the morning and were heading for the Spanish island Palma. They were travelling on a white fiberglass boat. We were not able to establish direct contact to the travellers but immediately alerted the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo to the distress situation, relaying all the information we had. For several days we attempted to reach the travellers without success, stayed in touch with relatives and were in contact with Salvamento Maritimo, police on Ibiza , Red Cross and other local actors, trying to determine the fate of the travellers.
Eventually we learned that the travellers had spent six days at sea after which they had been rescued and brought to Cabrera Island. One of them lost his life during this dangerous crossing. All our thoughts and solidarity are with the friends and family of the young person who lost his life as well as with the survivors who had to endure this traumatic experience.
We demand freedom of movement for all as the only way to end the deaths at sea!

Tweets about the case:
https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1696069431573590240?s=09 https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1696921599767724062?s=20
https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1697916760874205304
Last update: 15:30 Jun 05, 2024
Credibility: UP DOWN 0
Layers »
  • 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

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