31/12: 157 travellers in distress in the Central Med rescued by Open Arms.

01.01.2021 / 17:27 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 31st December 2020
Case name: 2020_12_31-CM337
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to one boat with 157 travellers in distress, rescued by Open Arms.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary On Thursday the 31st of December 2020, at 14.00 CET the Alarm Phone shift team was called directly by a boat in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea. The boat was carrying 157 travellers; 137 men, eight children and 12 women of which one was pregnant. They informed us that they had started from Sabratha at 08.00 on the 30th of December on a wooden boat. Their engine had broken down, and they were adrift as they called us. They told us that they were close to the Bouri oil platform and that they were not equipped with life vests. They further informed us that the situation on the boat was critical as waves were high. Because of the bad phone reception it took us several calls to obtain their GPS position but when we finally managed, we immediately sent an email to the so-called Libyan coastguard, with a copy to the rescue NGO Open Arms and Pilotes Volontaires forwarding all the information we had. We managed to stay in contact with the travellers during the day, despite the connection being bad, and were able to recharge credit to their phone, allowing them to keep communicating. This was we could receive their updated position, which did however not change much as they were drifting.
At 20.57 we learned from a tweet from Open Arms that they were rescuing the travellers:
“El #OpenArms está rescatando en estos momentos a más de 150 personas a la deriva en aguas internacionales a muchas millas de ninguna parte. Para todas ellas será un #FelizAñoNuevo #adios2020”
https://twitter.com/openarms_fund/status/1344734386487439360?s=20

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