21/02 : Two boats brought back to Libya

22.02.2020 / 18:50 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 21th of February 2020
Case name: 2020_02_21-CM233
Situation: Alarm Phone informed about two boats in the Central Med, both returned to Libya.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the Case:

The 21th of February the Alarm Phone was informed about two boats in distress who had left from Libya. In both cases we were not able to gather sufficient information, but were later on informed that both boats had been returned to Libya.

In the evening, the Alarm Phone received a call from a boat carrying 50 people, in need of help. Then the line broke and we could not reach the boat again. Our team tried to communicate through messages, where we learned that they had left from Al Khoms, and were afraid of being returned to Libya. We tried to contact the boat many times, but no one picked up. At one point, our WA messages were not delivered anymore.
At 21:58h the next day, our team finally received the information from the travellers that they had been rescued by fishermen and brought to Tripoli.

Later in the evening we were contacted by a worried relative, who had lost contact to his son travelling on a boat from Libya. We were never able to get sufficient information, but at 20.54h the relative informed us that the travellers had been intercepted and brought to a prison in Tripoli, where according to the relative, they would be sold.

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