29/11: 47 people on route to the Canary Islands, fate unknown

30.11.2023 / 16:48 / Atlantic Ocean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 29th of November 2023
Case name: 2023_11_29-ATL077
Situation: 47 people on route to the Canary Islands, fate unknown
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Atlantic Ocean

Summary of the Case: Shortly before midnight on the 29th of November the alarmphone shift team was called by a group of 47 people, travelling in a green plastic boat in the Atlantic Ocean. Among them were 5 children. They report to have left from the town Tarfaya on the Moroccon West Coast in the direction of the Canary Islands a couple of days earlier. We immediately relayed all the information we had to the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo. Very shortly after we received a new position from the people on the boat and also forwarded this information to the authorities. Very unfortunately after this we didn’t manage to reestablish contact with the people on the boat. The alarmphone shift team tried to find out what has happened to this boat but was unable to match it with rescues that have been made during this time. Until this day the fate of these people is unclear. We very much hope that all of the 47 people have safely made it to Spanish shore.
Tweet can be found here: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1730687481857605967

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