03/11: Around 100 travellers rescued and brought to Lampedusa

04.11.2020 / 21:14 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 3rd November 2020

Case name: 20201103-CM321

Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to boat in distress from Zuwara; rescued and brought to Lampedusa

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary

On Tuesday the 3rd of November 2020 at 05.48 CET our shift team was called directly by a group of around 100 travellers, including women and children. They told us that they had left from Zuwara on a wooden boat the previous day at 04.00. They had two engines of which one was broken, and they were running out of petrol. They also gave us a position on the phone, showing that they were in the Maltese search and rescue zone, very close to the border of the Italian search and rescue zone. At 06.18 we sent an email to the Italian and Maltese rescue authorities passing on all the information we had about the travellers. In addition, at 06.48 we called the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center in Rome, who confirmed that they had received our email, but refused to give us any information about ongoing search and rescue efforts. At 06.53 we spoke to the travellers again, and they told us that a fast boat was coming up behind them. After this point, we were no longer able to reach the travellers. At 15.30 a relative of one of the travellers informed us that the boat had been rescued and brought to Lampedusa.

Last update: 15:50 Feb 16, 2021

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