22/01: 60 people coming from Zawiyya, Libya, rescued by Ocean Viking

23.01.2021 / 12:14 / Central Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 22nd of January 2021

Case name: 20212201-CM348

Situation: 60 people called the Alarm Phone and soon after they were rescued by Ocean Viking

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the Case:

On 22nd of January 2021 at 04.06h CET the Alarm Phone received a distress call from a satellite phone. The person on the phone told the shift team they were 60 people on board, among them women and children. They transferred the GPS position vocally and asked for help. At 04.25h the GPS position was forwarded to the authorities and the NGO Ocean Viking. The next hours two more GPS position were received by the Alarm Phone and sent to the competent actors. At 06.44h CET Ocean Viking emailed that they have visual contact to a rubber boat and will launch the RHIBs to investigate the situation. 20 minutes later the NGO reported to have found an unseaworthy, overcrowded boat. There was no doubt that the people on board were in mortal danger and so rescue have been started. Later on Ocean Viking emailed that they completed the rescue of two boats, one close to the last given GPS position. We closed the case.

Last update: 12:59 Apr 29, 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