03/09: 13 travellers returned to Algeria after being adrift for a week

04.09.2024 / 17:12 / Western Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 3rd September 2024
Case name: 2024_09_03-WM024
Situation: 13 travellers in distress in the Western Med, returned to Algeria after drifting for a week.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean

Summary of the case: On Tuesday the 3rd of September 2024, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of 13 travellers, including one woman, in distress in the Western Mediterranean Sea. The travellers had left from around Algiers in the early hours of the morning the day before. We were not able to establish direct contact to the travellers and did not know their GPS position. However, we immediately alerted the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo, relaying all the information we had. Both we and the relative continued attempting to reach the boat for days without success. We also remained in contact with the authorities who were unable to confirm whether the travellers had been rescued or not. After almost a week we learned that the travellers had been brought back to Algeria after spending seven days drifting at sea as their engine had broken.

Tweets about the case:
https://x.com/alarm_phone/status/1830947090920284477
https://x.com/alarm_phone/status/1831423823352361438
https://x.com/alarm_phone/status/1833080113224683911

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