22/11: 45 people from Mauritania reach the Canaries

23.11.2020 / 17:45 / Western Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 22nd of November 2020
Case name: 2019_11_22-WM531
Situation: 45 men and children leave Mauritania and arrive in the Canary Islands
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean

Summary of the Case:

In the early evening of 22 November we were contacted by the worried brother of a Mauritanian man who had left Mauritania, along with 44 other people, on 16 November in a pirogue aiming for the Canary Islands. The
relative had had no news of his brother or the boat. He was able to tell us that everybody on the boat was Mauritanian and that the group consisted entirely of men and children. There were no women.

We spent the next three days scouring the Internet for information and calling the
authorities on the Canary Islands. The authorities would neither confirm nor deny the arrival of such a boat and the Internet was ambiguous. We were not able to get hold of anyone from the boat and nor was the person who had contacted us.

Finally, on 26 November the brothers were able to make contact. We learned that group had arrived safely on Tenerife. Boza, welcome to Europe.
Credibility: UP DOWN 0
Layers »
  • 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