21/11: Boat with 94 people in distress - Intercepted or Capsized

22.11.2019 / 22:02 / Central Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 21 November 2019
Case name: 2019_11_21-CM212
Situation: One boat with 94 people was either intercepted and returned to the dangers of Libya or lost their lives due to the refusal of European authorities to assist them.
Status of WTM Investigation: ???
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

In the early evening of 21 November 2019 our shift team was alerted to a boat in distress with 94 people on board. The rubber boat was losing air and they were in fear for their lives. We contacted the Italian coastguard and NGOs of the civil fleet, providing the GPS position of the boat and requesting urgent assistance. We maintained contact with the boat at regular intervals to ensure we had an up-to-date GPS location and to try to keep them calm. They told us that the rubber tubes around the edge of the boat were broken and they were very scared. Our last conversation with them was at 18.36 CET. In the meantime, two NGO boats, the Open Arms and Aita Mari, moved towards the boat in distress as fast as possible but they were both several hours away. By 22.10h CET both NGO boats were in the area conducting a search. They said it was very windy and they were fearful for the people in the boat. We had made several attempts to contact the so-called Libyan coastguard to find out if the boat had been intercepted but we were unable to get in touch with them. We contacted the Maltese coastguard but they had refused to act using the excuse that the boat was in the disputed Libyan search and rescue zone. We were not able to confirm whether these 94 people (including 13 women, three of whom were pregnant, and children) were intercepted and returned to the dangers of Libya, or whether they lost their lives that night due to the refusal of European authorities to assist.
Last update: 18:05 Dec 30, 2019
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

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