19/11: assumed invisible shipwreck killing 18 people

20.11.2023 / 15:12 / Western Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 19th of November 2023
Case name: 2023_11_19-WM075
Situation: boat with 18 men left Algeria, probably ended in an invisible shipwreck
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean

Summary of the Case: On the 19th of October 2023 the Alarmphone was alerted by a relative to a boat carrying 18 men. They have left Bordj El Bahri, Algeria in the morning of the 15th of November and were travelling in the Alboran Sea. The relative assumes that they did not have enough fuel with them to continue their journey. Unfortunately the Alarmphone has never managed to establish contact with the people on the boat. We immediately informed the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Marítimo and gave them all information we had. From them we learned that they have contacted all merchant vessels in the area to look for the boat. The boat could not have been matched with any arrivals in the following days and also in the weeks after the relatives told us that they didn’t hear from any of the people on this boat. Therefore it is assumed that this boat has been yet another invisible shipwreck. Our thoughts are with the families and friends who have lost their loved ones. For safe passages for all people!

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