30/07 65 people rescued to Tunisia

Verified

  In Distress

31.07.2020 / 18:51 / Central Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 30th of July 2020

Case name: 2020_07_30-CM275

Situation: 65 people rescued to Tunisia

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the Case:

Lat N 033.45941" - LON E 011.29402" from 22.00 CEST

At about 22:00 CEST, 30 July 2020 we were called by a boat in distress. The boat was carrying 68 people, including five women and four children. The engine had stopped working, water was entering the boat and they were drifting. As the best chance of rescue was by Tunisia, we contacted the Tunisian authorities. We also sent an email to MRCC Rome.

We were unable to reach the Tunisians by phone. We had had no response to our email. The distress situation was worsening, so we contacted Rome at 22:30. They refused to take responsibility for the situation. We continued to ask MRCC Rome to intervene. They did not, but at 00:30 they did provide us with a different email address and phone number for their Tunisian counterparts. We were able to contact the MRCC in Tunisia and pass on the position of the boat.

Overnight, we continued trying to reach the boat but had no success. Worried and with no communication from the coastguard about a search and rescue operation, we tried to reach out to merchant shipping in the area. There was no response. We sent out the following tweet:

68 people in distress in internat. waters! Yesterday evening, we were contacted by a boat fleeing #Libya. They were near the coast of #Tunisia. We informed the Tunisian & European authorities, but they all refuse responsibility. We lost contact to the boat more than 12h ago.

At about 14:30 we received confirmation from Tunisia that they had rescued a boat about midday and brought the travellers to the port of Zarzis.
Last update: 19:05 Dec 05, 2020
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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