28/12: 28 people from Libya, rescued to Malta

29.12.2018 / 17:45 / Central Mediterrean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 28th of December 2018
Case name: 2018_12_30-CM146
Situation: 28 people from Libya rescued to Malta
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the Case: On Friday the 28th of December 2018 the Alarm phone shift team were alerted to a rubber boat in distress carrying 28 people who had left from Libya. At 5.10pm CET we contacted the Maltese coast guard as the boat was already close to the Maltese Search and Rescue Zone. We informed them of the case providing the GPS position and the Thuraya contact number for the people on the boat. As the time went on the travellers began to panic as water was entering their boat. For several hours we stayed in constant contact with them, recharging their Thuraya phone credit and trying to reassure them. We, and other actors, kept updating the coastguard with new GPS positions, as there had been some confusion regarding the format of the coordinates we had been provided. The coast guard appeared to be engaged in a search for the boat and had begun direct communication with the travellers via their Thuraya phone. Just after midnight we began to see search and rescues activity by air and sea in the area where the boat was. We then learned from the people on the boat that they have lights and will try to illuminate their boat to get seen by the rescue forces. We immediately passed this information to the Maltese coast guard, who finally confirmed at 1.05am on Saturday the 29th of December that a rescue operation was currently underway. Soon after we received confirmation from a nearby rescue boat that the boat had been rescued by the Maltese coastguard.
Last update: 13:56 Feb 05, 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