03/11: 74 people in distress from Zawiya probably reached Lampedusa

04.11.2020 / 15:06 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 3rd of November 2020

Case name: 20201103-CM318

Situation: contact to the boat got lost very close to Lampedusa, people seemed to have arrived there

Status of WTM Investigation: concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case:

On November 3rd in the early morning at 02:13h CET the Alarm Phone got informed about a boat in distress with 74 people that had started from Zawiya on the 1st November. The people reported the boat was leaking and asked for help. As their GPS position was located in Maltese SAR zone we informed the Maltese authorities via email as we couldn’t reach them on the phone. The travellers kept sending us their positions and were seemingly moving towards Lampedusa, so we also informed Italian authorities. We kept contact with the boat the whole night till 6.20h CET on November 3rd, when they were at about 2 hours from Lampedusa. After that their phone was not reachable any more. We assumed they arrived there as they already could see the lights of the island at our last call.

Last update: 15:44 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