29/08: 11 travellers missing in the Western Mediterranean Sea

30.08.2023 / 21:57 / Western Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 29th of August 2023
Case name: 2023_08_29-WM057
Situation: 11 travellers missing in the Western Mediterranean Sea
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On the 29th of August 2023 the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of 11 travellers, including a young girl, in distress in the Western Mediterranean Sea. The group had left Mostaganem, Algeria, in the early morning of the 25th of August in a dark colored boat, heading towards Cartagena. The shift team relayed all the information to the Spanish search and rescue organization Salvamento Maritimo. In the next hours and days, the shift team tried to reach the travellers and contacted Spanish and Algerian rescue authorities as well as other authorities and organisations to find out more about the whereabouts of the travellers, but without success – it is still unclear, what has happened to the people on the boat.

Last update: 15:36 Jun 05, 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