22/11: 1 boat with 87 travellers rescued by Salvamento Maritimo

23.11.2023 / 16:37 / Atlantic Ocean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 22th of November 2023
Case name: 2023_11_22-ATL075
Situation: One boat with 87 travellers was rescued after their situation deteriorated for hours.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Atlantic Ocean

Summary of the Case: On the 22th of November, a relative alerted the Alarm Phone shift team to a boat in distress in the Atlantic Ocean. The group of 87 travellers, among them 12 women and six babies, had left Dakhla, Western Sahara, in the early morning of the same day. The shift team managed to reach the group. The travellers shared their position and reported that the weather conditions were bad and they were running out of fuel. Furthermore, there was no more food and water and one of the pregnant women was about to give birth – the group was in urgent need of rescue and support. The shift team relayed all these information to the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo and later also forwarded the updated information, that water began entering the boat. During the following hours, the situation of the travellers deteriorated, but after long hours the boat had been rescued and brought to Spain.

Tweets about this case: https://x.com/alarm_phone/status/1727444082509685028?s=20

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