05/10: 40 travellers intercepted and brought back to Libya

06.10.2018 / 15:38 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 5th of October 2018
Case name: 2018_10_05CM138
Situation: 40 travellers on their way to Italy, intercepted from international waters after being spotted by Colibri
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Friday the 5th of October at 11.49am, the Alarm Phone shift team received a direct call from a rubber boat which had left from Al Khums at around 2am. On the boat were around 40 travellers, including three children and five women, of which one was pregnant. The call was interrupted before we could obtain much information about the situation of the travellers, but we immediately sent them a text explaining how to send us their position. Afterwards we were not able to reach the travellers for a while, but by monitoring their credit we could see that they were in contact with others. At 3.35pm the travellers called us again and managed to give us their position. In a phone call to the travellers an hour later, we could hear a plane I the background, and soon after we learned that the civil aircraft Colibri had spotted the boat, which was now in international waters, though still inside the so-called Libyan search and rescue zone. Civil rescue vessels, as well as the Italian coast guard and a close by merchant vessel had been made aware of the distress situation. At 5.22pm the travellers told us that they had run out of fuel and were thus left drifting. At 5.46pm we received an updated position from the travellers, but after this point we were no longer able to reach them. At 11.44pm we received a confirmation that the travellers had been intercepted by the Libyan “coast guard” and brought back to Libya.
Last update: 17:11 Nov 15, 2018
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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