05/04: Three travellers stranded on Alboran Island

06.04.2024 / 12:39 / Western Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 05 of April 2024
Case name: 2024_04_05-WM008
Situation: The fate of three travellers stranded on Alboran Island is still unknown.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean

Summary of the Case: On the 5th of April, a relative alerted the Alarm Phone shift team to a group of three travellers in distress on the Alboran Island, a small, military controlled island belonging to the municipality of Almeria, Spain. The three had left Nador, Morocco, on March 30th, and arrived on Alboran Island. The relative had been sent a photo of them on Alboran Island a week ago, but since then he had not been able to reach them and had heard nothing more from them. The shift team alerted the Spanish search and rescue organization Salvamento Maritimo to the group. Over the next few days, the teams tried to find out where the people were by contacting the relevant authorities, but the authorities refused to provide any information. To this day, the Alarm Phone does not know what happened to the people – we fear that they may have been pushed back to Morocco. The Alarm Phone strongly condemns this practice and hopes that the people have been brought safely to the Spanish mainland.

Tweets about this case: https://x.com/alarm_phone/status/1776622967721472454

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