21/11: 1 boat with 14 travellers remains missing

22.11.2023 / 16:34 / Western Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 21th of November 2023
Case name: 2023_11_21-WM077
Situation: 14 travellers are missing after their departure from Bordj el Bahri, Algeria.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On the 21th of November, a relative alerted the Alarm Phone shift team to a group of travellers in distress in the Western Mediterranean Sea. The group of 14 travellers had left from Bordj el Bahri, Algeria, on the 15th of November and had run out of fuel shortly after their departure. The shift team could not reach the travellers but relayed all the information to the Spanish search and rescue organization Salvamento Maritimo. The shift teams tried to reach the travellers and stayed in contact with both the relative as well as Salvamento Maritimo, who confirmed that they were searching the boat but could not find them. Throughout the next weeks, the whereabout of this boat has remained unclear and the Alarm Phone hopes that the travellers have reached the European shores on their own.

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